The next link

With gas cost seeing no end to its new levels of prices. And we as Americans need to do something. As we know mass transit just is not working well in the US, partially because of our large amount of land mass. Humans are just to impatient, we want the mode of travel to be on demand. In Europe and Japan the mass transit runs like clockwork. But we have not been able to do this effectively in the US because we have to\ much land so we have so much urban sprawl it just is not cost effective. So how do we move to a effective mode of mass transit that is cost effective. Generally mass transit systems are very expensive capital expenditures. Even a 10 percent usage would be a major success. This would have an accordion inverse effect freeing up congestion.

With some technologies getting really inexpensive like biometrics we can have a safe and more convenient method of mass transit with an available source.

I propose a link that can be used to solve most of these human factor issues and exponentially lower capital costs. I will for the sake of example call it Ride America™.
In many countries hitchhiking is still a ok means of travel and they do not have problems with it people in general like helping others when given a chance. Right now our country is bleeding from the cost of energy. As we know here in the US because we in essence can not trust our fellow Americans it is not used. I remember in college missing a train and hitch hiking all the way. I have hitchhiked as late as 4 years ago when my transmission went out in the middle of nowhere. Had no problem getting a ride. In college I still remember the guy that picked us up had a grave marker in the back seat, I can not remember if my friend was happy about it, I think she commented on it later. I will have to give her a call to ask, she is still a good friend 20 some years later.

I believe technology costs have caught up with this basic mode of travel. Here is the system I propose,

To participate you must be fingerprinted and a simple background check is completed. Thus we know many people will not participate just for this. Upon a background check which includes a credit and criminal history you are given a “ride America” card. Next if you are driving your car to work there are pickup locations at onramps like bus stops at as many onramps as possible. If you are a driver you pull up to section where it says where you are driving to say downtown. You open your window and swipe your card and put finger on the biometric reader. Thus your card with your fingerprint verifies who you are and that you are a member of ride America. Then at the pickup point if a person inserted their card and finger it gives both of you a readout between 1 and ten that includes credit and criminal traffic data that is held private. And either of you can decline the ride or rider. But what is important here is there is a record of you accepting a ride so if anything happens we know who is responsible. This in itself is a high secure deterrent. Also if the person you ride with acts inappropriately in any manor after your ride you can go to the internet and report the incident which will effect the persons rating depending on the severity of what ever happened. Very similar in analogy to a ebay rating system that people seem to have trust in..

There are some social benefits to this we in America do not get to know one another as much as we should. I have loved hitch hiking when I have done it, I have met some awesome people. And never had a bad experience either hitch hiking or picking up people hitch hiking. This method gives a level of security that ensures a level of security you can not even match on regular mass transit. And it meets the demands of our human factors of we want it now. The beauty of this is once it is accepted our roads always have people driving on them to pick us up.

Obviously now there are multiple people in the vehicles so we make use of car-pool lanes. the benefit of the driver receives and less traffic and gas share. Thus you drop them off at the city exit point or off ramp or interchange. This would be at a major interchange where it becomes a city bus mega transit center where because so many people are using it the buses run at 5 minute intervals during peak hours. So there is no rushing or waiting for a bus. It runs like clockwork such that it meets the expectations of the user. There are also commuter bicycles or electronic scooters you can check out for the day at this node so you can get to work if a few blocks past walking distance. You again swipe your “ride America” card and use your fingerprint to release a bike.

At the point of pickup from your town you either drive your car and leave it in a commuter parking lot (the entrance ramp to the highway) or you ride your bicycle to this pickup junction, where there are good alarmed security racks to secure your bicycle. Also today with cell phones so prevalent in cases where unexpected weather hits you make a call for an different means of transport if you rode your bicycle.

You do the same thing in reverse to get home.

Another benefit to this is another avenue. national hitch hiking. College students from the US or Europe could virtually get around the US and stop where they want for as long as they want and get moving very quickly. Truly seeing America safely, remember if you disappear the person is known by his ID and fingerprint and again if the person does not have a high rating you just do not ride. Also if you ever have a problem with a person you lodge a complaint from rude and so on, this will effect his “ride America rating”

Why does this work now, because of wireless low cost in metro areas, biometrics is now such a low cost reliable solution and gas is getting so expensive. So is this the missing link? It may not be ideal for all cities but with some logistics worked out I think it can work.

This is as simple as it appears. And the beauty of it is it does not take billions of dollars to implement just in one city. And the gas and environmental savings can be enormous.

Here is the question for debate is what are your concerns if you are the 10% that would use it.

If you are not a person that would use it what could be done so you would or would make it better

I did not vote in the poll because I felt a lot of the assumptions you made about the US as a whole were inaccurate. My husband takes public transportation everyday to work and he loves it. Some areas/regions of the US have great alternative forms of transport.

The people commuting in DC metro area are already way ahead of you on this..they call it slugging.

What is Slugging?

Thanks for the link. It is very interesting. I would point out that I do have a few patent on another computer mouse technology that solves other use issues. Most patents are improvements. So seems we need to improve this dinasour

So the first thing that comes to mind is why hasn't the DC slugging system moved to other cities?

So one can conclude that a system like this is acceptable to people, this DC one is being used. What is nice is they have a history to build on.

I read some of the stories and I will say my proposed method solves many of the issues people have experienced and we could imagine. A rider who stinks, thus people could report this person and their rating would go down. A criminal getting pulled over with invalid plates and arrested, a very rude driver, a driver who drives too aggressively. And so on. I did not read all of them. My proposed improvements would weed out or eliminate the majority of the problems I read. Could these be part of the reason it has not moved to other cities.

I like the idéa with the 'ID' or swipecard system. Better yet, a built in chip so you would not lose it. Biometrics in general is perfect.

So why would anyone be against it? I know americans are against being registered in any kind of way, why? The only people not wanting to use these kind of systems would logically be Criminals. And all americans aren't criminals, are they?

Side note regarding this: Anyone know why? Its not logical to be against such a suitable system to keep control of the people and yourself.





Inventor, the problem here is that its subjective. People have sued eminem because ' they didn't like him' . Same goes here, these kind of people (i will say americans ) would complain about anything, ' oh, he is a Muslim, minus point minus point, not a Christian, everyone, he is NOT a Christian...' .. and so forth. Not to mention atheist 'oh my god, he is intelligent, an intelligent being, everyone, minus points' ......

EricStanze, Some good points.


I think there are many privacy types that will not like this system and be against it. Those are the ones that it would be interesting to see what they needed before they would use it. Also looking to see if this was enough security for females to use it, looking for their input to see if the ID acceptance with biometrics was acceptable to them. Also it was interesting that the DC system had a courtesy rule no female could be left alone, if a pickup occurred and a female was going to be left alone the other rider would either stay behind or if a male let the female go first.

in the DC model they have some unwritten rules that are written there. IE you do not talk unless driver initiates it; then heaven forbid tell AD members this rule, do not talk politics, race, religion and sex issues. Just relax, unwind listen to the news, nap let the driver drive, kind of like being on a bus in heavy traffic. No cell phone long conversations, and so on. It was nice to see the unwritten rule written.

For your complainers just as in ebay it is possible to get some bad marks but these will not be to major on the scoring if they are that rare. And also it can come back to bite you, if you are statistically a cry baby and others are not complaining your score can be impacted. . IE if you complain about a lot of people that no one else complains about it will be weighted in your ability to have peoples score severely affected. Again not perfect but either is ebay's system.

I have started a business restoring and customizing old motorcycles here in Alaska- and business is great. The number one, two and three reasons I am giving for dragging that old KZ 440 or GS 550 or such out of the back yard, that they parked back in the 80s is "this thing got like 70 miles to the gallon in the city"- which is true LOL- and they want me to update the performance, looks or safety, usually all three, of thier bike. Women are especially flocking to this scene- usually driven by thier husbands or S.O. buys them a new harley, which is heavy, slow and hard to maneuver. and, not that great on fuel either (though not too bad)- and want something smaller and more to thier taste- or as I tell them "You man bought you carharts and you wanted an italian slipper, right?" - so I build the bike to thier personality.

So there lies my answer- I think the US anti-hitchhiker sentiment will lead to another paradigm- custom bikes- lot's and lot's of motorcycles will be seen, and when middle aged women ride them as much as anyone else- they will be the "norm" - just like tattoos- they really didn't become a craze for real until middle aged women started getting them.

If middle aged women start picking up poeple on a regular basis in those lanes- you will see it happen everywhere- it seems to me in the US middle aged women drive acceptance to a trend in this country- don't ask me why, it is just a personal business indicator!

I wouldn't use it, but that is for two reasons:

1. I am a woman alone, and would not pick up a stranger for any reason. I think, fingerprinting or no fingerprinting, you'd run up against a lot of resistance to the idea of just picking people up off the side of the road ... and against the uncertainty of 'hitching' for the hitchers.

2. I live only three miles from my office. I have no family to worry about school districts and such, so I choose to live in the city. If more people would do this, I think some of the commuting headaches would ease.