Comments on: Hitchhiking Vetting Scheme

By: Fossilfool

Fossilfool — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 05:16:35 +0000

Kipchoge,

I was promoting Xtracycle tonight at the Biofuels oasis “Driving Still Sucks” party. One of the other speakers was Steven from Spaceshare.com. He was speaking about creating an ebay-like system for ridesharing, carpooling, and hitchhiking. I told him I’d put you two in touch. info@spaceshare.com

By: Chelsea of Veritaz

Chelsea of Veritaz — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 15:29:55 +0000

I grabbed a card from a bicycle shop in Charleston and thought I’d see what it was all about. I wish the kids that I’m making a documentary about had your sport utility bicycles instead of the bikes they are riding. The film crew has to haul all of their stuff in the support car and there is NO ROOM! hahahaha. Check us out if you get a chance they are riding cross-country raising money for children with cancer. They have like one year’s experience cycling. haha.

http://www.rallyacrossamerica.org

http://veritaz.blogspot.com

rock n roll!
-Chelsea

By: Robin

Robin — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 12:16:38 +0000

Great blog. For years, I’ve been thinking of retiring with a group of like-minded friends, who would each have a small private space in a ‘compound’ that shared much of what a normal home would have…one garden, one courtyard, one pool a large community room, etc…etc… Heck, there could be 8 or 10 of us all riding bikes with just one car for the really long trips. On another note regarding fear…wouldn’t it be nice to live in a country/world where our “leaders” discouraged fear and encouraged unity instead of the opposite. Maybe we need a president that’s more like Oprah than W. (Just my 2 cents, and probably all it’s worth.)

By: Tom

Tom — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 11:41:55 +0000

We just need to work on the system to make beings unafraid and we’ll solve so many problems at once.

We already have that, it’s called trust.

By: Ryano

Ryano — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 10:40:23 +0000

Nice point Ian. “Self-sufficiency” is taken to extreme levels in many places in the West (not just the US). Just look at google earth satelite photos of many an LA suburb. You can count literally a hundred swimming pools, a hundred tennis courts, and of course, thousands of four car garages, within a few km radius. It’s nuts. Just think what kind of public gym those people could have bought if only they shared.

Showing my stripes now, but I really do think this kind of “Self-sufficiency at all cost” attitude tends to be the strongest in the “new world” countries where people tend to drive a heck of a lot - USA, Canada, Australia, NZ etc.

By: tricky coyote

tricky coyote — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 05:07:12 +0000

I think you’re right, Tom and Sue. I guess my suggestion pays too much attention to curing the symptom.

We just need to work on the system to make beings unafraid and we’ll solve so many problems at once.

By: Tom

Tom — Wed, 31 May 2006 09:02:57 +0000

Hitch’ing is one of the last vestiges of the ‘free’ world, does it really need corporatising? I can almost hear Jack turning in his grave. An e-bay style reputation system is about as far from the Dharma Bums as you can get.

Not to mention that it goes against the whole spirit of the xtracyce–Jump on the night-train instead.

By: Ian Hopper

Ian Hopper — Tue, 30 May 2006 00:07:30 +0000

Inre: self-sufficiency. SOME of this “self sufficiency” is just disguised paranoia and distrust. Some of it is true “up by the bootstraps”, DIY inventiveness. Unfortunately, there is a certain social stigma surrounding “borrowing”, and it mainly boils down to integrity. Do you (not you Kipchoge) bring the thing you “borrow” back when you say you will? Do you bring them back damaged but don’t admit the damage? Do you bring them back at all? A person’s track record of integrity is the measure that most people use when deciding whether to loan any particular item to a particular person. I like the idea of the rating system, but there’s always a bit of problem for new members: if there’s no one to vouch for you, how do you get in?

By: Sue

Sue — Mon, 08 May 2006 14:17:19 +0000

YEa, I recognize both urges in my self: the joy of being self-sufficient, as well as the real thrill of the power of mutual trust. WHen I get away from “I *have* to borrow” and closer to “by waxing symbiotic, together we’re even *more* self-sufficient” good things happen.
I realized a while ago that for years I’d not picked up on the second half of “we have nothing to fear but fear itself.” I”d always figured it was a “yo! if we all work together, we have nothing to fear!” message… but in recent decades I’ve realized that the converse is also true: fear causes really bad stuff that we should be afraid of. LIke not being able to hitchhike… or trust anybody who doesn’t look like me…