Phil Hart has dreamed up a plan that helps car drivers pay for gas, creates a whole new mode of public transportation, and cuts down the number of cars on the road – thus lessening strain on the environment.
Nicknamed, iHitch, his idea is to create a social networking service that connects drivers to passengers who need a ride. In other words, hitchhiking. But this a friendly, safe version of hitchhiking, not the sketchy mess it’s become. Similar to Couchsurfing.com, iHitch would use a rating system to authenticate riders and drivers.
The concept is simple. On your mobile phone, type in your desired destination. Using GPS to note your location, drivers on the iHitch network that are going to, or near your destination will be alerted of where you are, and where you want to go. If it matches up with where they’re headed, and they like your rating, you get picked up and the iHitch system facilitates a small payment.
Winning situation all around.
The Oil Drum: High Tech Hitchhiking
[via MeFi]
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iHitch is reminiscent of a project they are piloting in Belgium called “urban hitchhiking” — the idea is to redeploy existing urban infrastructure in smarter ways. I’ve blogged about the Belgian and related “redeployment” projects here:
http://designactivism.net/archives/91
I think once we really start thinking this way we’ll find a whole lot of good redeployment options.
Ann Thorpe
August 16th, 2008 at 11:54 pm