Car Pool, Ride Share, Hitch Hike your way to Fun & Dollars

[This post is written and copyrighted by FIRE Finance (http://firefinance.blogspot.com).]

We love to drive. No we do not own a Merc or a Beemer. We drive our sedan for the sheer joy of it. Driving through the woods and around the hills fills us with immense peace and calm.

Yet there are days when we wished someone else was at the wheels so that we could relax for a while. Bad boss, uncooperative colleague, difficult deadlines, too many meetings - all these can build up a lot of stress and strain our nerves.
Imagine how risky and hard it is if we have to drive under such circumstances. Sounds familiar? To add insult to injury you are late for dinner with your spouse, courtesy bumper to bumper traffic jam.

Yes there is a solution - ride sharing.

Feel good about it!
Sharing a ride has quite a few benefits.

• It is convenient and less stressful, since we don't have to drive every time. We get to relax, unwind and enjoy the ride too.
• Instead of getting bored the trips can be real fun if we have interesting conversations with our fellow riders.
• We often get to know people and make friends.
• In some places we would more likely reach our destinations sooner due to carpool or HOV lanes.
• Saves gas and helps conserve the precious resources of our Mother Nature.
• Lesser greenhouse emissions implies cleaner air to breath.
  
• Last but not the least, you guessed it - it saves quite a few bucks.
  

There are two kinds of ride sharing - commuting to work on a regular basis or an occasional trip to another city. We would like to share some resources with our readers for both types of ride sharing.

Commute
Plenty of websites and free services exist to help with our commuting needs. Since commuting is a local phenomenon there are many city-based or local organizations providing carpool services to a particular region. Time to dust off the yellow pages! Couple of services from California are Commutesmart serving southern CA and 511 for the San Francisco Bay area. Here is a list of few popular sites which can solve our carpool needs: Carpoolworld, ERideshare and Craiglist.

Hit the road Mary!
Need a ride for the holidays? How about hitchhiking! Even though it has become rare these days (and illegal in some localities in the US), we can still hitchhike on the web! GishiGo and Ridester specialize in such long distance ride sharing services. Both sites employ a feedback system, thus raising the measure of confidence for its users.
GishiGo does not have any registration requirement and offers its services for 99 cents only, accepts payment via paypal. It works proactively with the police, US govt. and other govt. authorities to stop harassment.
At Ridester registering, listing trips, and searching for trips are free. Only upon successful completion of a trip, Ridester collects a $2 ticket fee on the rider's payment and a 9.5% processing fee on the driver's asking price. They offer money back guarantees too. Kindly read the fine prints and FAQs at the sites before using those services. More cross country listings can be found at ERideshare and Craiglist.

Beyond boundaries
Ridesharing is very popular among folks in Europe. Students, tourists and professionals alike, all do it. In general travel and gas costs are higher in Europe compared to the US. Besides Europe is very well connected by roads and have good highways. In case you have any travel plans in Europe, it may be worth checking out hitchhikers. Ride with the locals, make some friends and get to know them far better - convenient yet cheap!

Party time
Some free services provide ride sharing information on a per event basis. For example if the annual Christmas party of our company is to be held at a certain Arena, we can setup a virtual bulletin board and facilitate carpooling. One such website is Rideshare. Similar service is offered by Carpoolworld and ERideshare.

Mama said - "Dont talk to strangers"!
How safe is ridesharing? Yes safety is a very legitimate concern. In case of commuting we know where the riders live, where they work and so on. It is certainly much safer. Chances are high that all the commuters reside in the same neighborhood. Not so for hitchhiking with a total stranger. Whether we are the hitcher or the driver we need to exercise caution and use common sense. We have no idea about the riders' true identities; no background checks, or validation of drivers' licenses and insurance. Some planning and handy tips would be very helpful in this regard. At any time if we feel uncomfortable we should politely end the trip as soon as possible. All said and done, we feel that in reality it is safer than we imagine.

Have you hitchhiked lately? Are you a lifetime hitcher? Do you have a ride sharing story for others to read? Please feel free to write to us so that we all may enjoy and benefit from it.

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Image Source(s): iStockPhoto