What's green, economical and reduces congestion? The answer is cyber hitching – websites, such as carshare.com and liftshare.org, that put travellers in touch with car drivers to share journeys and petrol costs. And in these times of financial uncertainty, they are racking up a huge global following.
Hitchhiking has long been a cheap but unreliable mode of travel, but the advantage of finding a lift online is that, rather than just sticking out your thumb and hoping for the best, you can find out about your driver in advance, consider compatibility, and check references left by other travellers.
Avego.com is the latest site to emerge and looks set to be the most hi-tech. Their service, which is currently recruiting beta testers, allows drivers to use GPS-enabled Apple iPhones to register their location/destination and be matched with like-minded passengers, who can use any "common cell phone" to send lift requests via text.
Traditional hitching also appears to be undergoing an internet-fuelled revival. This month, Hitchwiki.org – an open, wiki site that enables hitchers to post their own tips and features – celebrates reaching 1,000 articles.
"I'd be cautious of recommending off-the-cuff hitching to travellers," says Sally Broom, founder of travel network YourSafePlanet.com. "However, the online sites offer a system that has some backup, a sort of paper trail that you can trace back. With a little planning, travellers should be able to share lifts safely, rather than taking the chance of traditional hitchhiking."
Broom recommends asking for references, swapping identity documents before getting in the car, and adds, "If a situation feels wrong, don't get in."
The current rising star in online ridesharing is PickupPal.com, described by its founders as an "eBay for transportation", where passengers request a lift and drivers set a fee. Founded in January, it now has 100,000 members worldwide and the original 7% commission charge has now been scrapped, leaving it free to join, like most of the others.
Co-founder Eric Dewhirst says he has noticed a significant increase in new sign-ups since mid-September, when the world flew into financial turmoil. "The only thing that we can attribute this to is our members looking at ways to weather this economic storm by doing more with the resources they have," he says.
Ironically, the founders hit a hurdle in their home province of Ontario, where a bizarre transport law has deemed it illegal.
They are hoping to convince authorities to overturn this legislation at an October 15 hearing, so PickupPal can keep on trucking. But would you try it? Do you think cyber hitching is a good or bad idea? Or perhaps you already using the sites and can share some tips with would-be users?
· More carsharing schemes on One Green Earth
· More safety tips from PickupPal
