NuRide: Encouraging You to Ride the Network
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 11. 9.05
Touted as a frequent-flyer program for cars, NuRide takes a proactive approach to cutting down on traffic, petroleum consumption and pollution by offering rewards for documenting your ride-sharing with them. Here's how it works: you join the network for free, and then start planning trips: to work, to school, to the grocery store, concert, game, etc. You can then use the network to find other people going your way and share a ride. After a set number of miles, you start earning rewards, like gift cards and discounts to retailers across the country.
Though NuRide takes several steps to verify who joins their network, riding around with strangers might not be everyone's thing. To take some of the chance out of it, the user always has the choice about who rides with whom, whether driving or riding. They also encourage friends and people who already carpool to sign up; they're happy to reward people who already share rides. It also looks like a great way for people without cars to get where they need to go if public transportation won't cut it, and is infinitely more customizable, if slightly less efficient.
It's really quite an interesting, innovative idea, predicated upon turning America's love affair with the automobile into positive change. We're always fans of the "get more bees with honey" approach, and it appears to be making a difference: NuRide reports they've taken over two million miles off of U.S. roads, resulting in 1,000 fewer tons of automobile emissions. A press release states they only operate in a few locations on the east coast, but the website mentions no such restriction. ::NuRide via ::CSRwire
