Reducing Traffic By Promoting Safe Hitchhiking

Being a good neighbor might just mean offering people a lift.

A lot of folks agree that our roads and highways are too full of costly, carbon emitting vehicles carrying only one or two occupants. 

Crazy as it may sound, making hitchhiking great again might be a way we could encourage more ride sharing, a practice that was much more acceptable when I grew up than it is today. 

Here's a way a community could make it safer:

1. Have local law enforcement agencies do background checks and issue reflective arm bands and photo ID's to deserving individuals.

2. Good Neighbor drivers could likewise be approved and issued photo ID's and similar bands to display on their rear view mirrors. 

3. Persons needing a ride could seek one along any roadside or street where a vehicle could safely pull off and stop to pick up a passenger.

4. Ride seekers who are strangers to the driver would show their ID through the car's passenger side window, with drivers doing the same, before offering the ride. 

Sound crazy? Probably to the majority of us who would rather not be bothered by giving someone a lift, or who have an excessive fear for our safety if we were to do so. But in a community of good neighbors, it's hard to see a downside to such an "Uber for all" kind of sharing. 

On a related note, I recently attended a meeting in which representatives of RideShare, an area-wide program of the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission and the Central Shenandoah Planning District Commission, described a program for regular commuters that's already in existence as a way of reducing traffic congestion and increasing transportation efficiency throughout Central Virginia and the Central Shenandoah Valley.

It offers free carpool matching and vanpool coordination, and operates a Guaranteed Ride Home program to provide free rides home in an emergency. RideShare works with employers to develop and implement traffic reduction programs, and markets the region’s Park and Ride lots.

RideShare's motto is "when you share the ride, everyone benefits, your community, your car, and your wallet!"

To which I would add, "and our planet."