Special Series
The Year of Living Car-lessly Experiment
In a Series
High-tech Hitchhiking
“Don’t you college boys know? People don’t like hitch-hikers no more.” That’s what the state trooper told us—my friend John and me—25 years ago. We were standing in the rain, on the edge of an Ohio highway, our thumbs half extended, bedraggled from a sleepless night and unseasonably cold temperatures. Twelve hours earlier we “college boys” certainly had not known, but we had caught on in the meantime. For lack of rides, our planned hitch-hiking road trip to see America was going nowhere.
For most generations of North Americans before my own, thumbing rides was routine, even a rite of passage. Today—outside of a few islands and national parks—the United States and Canada have become virtual no-hitch zones. But the confluence of expensive fuel, climate-conscious entrepreneurs, and cell-phone text messaging may soon reintroduce hitchhiking—redubbed real-time ride-sharing—to the transportation scene. In fact, the start-up company Goose Networks (as in, "flocking together") is already executing instant matches between would-be riders and driving commuters five days a week in Seattle.
More on that in a minute. First, why is this car-lessly important?
Liberty, Property, and Zillow.com
Last month, Cascadians handed a stunning defeat to the so-called property rights ballot measures across the Northwest that would have granted unprecedented freedom to property owners. Does this signify a rejection of a bedrock value for northwesterners—freedom?
Not at all, argues Alan Durning in his recent essay on freedom and property values. Rather, Cascadians understand how our individual freedom is protected by democratic standards.
Just look at Zillow.com, the property value website where you can see your home as part of the network of your neighborhood. Looking your home up is a clear reminder that what your neighbor does affects the value of your property. And that’s just the beginning of how we are interconnected.
