If you’ve stuck out your thumb in America recently, you realize people are really freakin scared (or just completely selfish). It’s hard to get a ride, even when you don’t look like a complete freak (not that I’m an expert on not looking like a freak). It’s a bummer that it’s such a hard way to travel. It has a lot going for it, including being pretty ecological (hop in with someone who’s going your way and your own impact is practically zero), and freewheelin adventurous in a kindof On the Road way.
I’ve been thinking about how cool it would be if there was someway to know that the hitchhiker was cool, and that the driver picking you up wasn’t a serial abductor. What if there was an ebay-like system where you get rated by the people who give you rides or by the riders you pick up? Participants could have an ID card linked to their profile. It could all be checked from your cell phone.
What’s more, the cell phone itself could be used with some of the new “who’s in my neighborhood” tech to find people going your way. This capability seems to be right around the corner. More likely, it’s already here, but no one cares enough about hitchhiking quite yet to make it work. I predict its imminent arrival.
Over at WorldChanging, there’s a piece about a universal reputation rating system. Something like this could incorporate the hitchhiking vetting process. It does seem a bit creepy, having an online reputation for everything you do, like maybe a little too transparent. But there are certainly environmental benefits to the sharing scheme that it supposes: if you can trust more people to borrow your stuff, and vice versa, a whole lot more sharing can potentially enable a lot less “I need my own everything” mentality.
On the flip side, I think trust is a small part of the borrowing issue. In truth, people like their own stuff not just because they don’t feel comfy borrowing. I think there’s a lot of energy around the idea of self-sufficiency, i.e., I shouldn’t have to borrow.
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…
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?
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.
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.
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.
We already have that, it’s called trust.
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.)
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
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