Topics
1 Comment
-
ridesharing
2007-01-08 15:11:52 UTC
Hello,
I finally have the opportunity to share something that I learned while living in Europe! Concerning the following posting: We are therefore interested in best practices for promoting ridesharing/carpooling to the general public, rather than to employees of a specific company or organization. As well, I am curious about "stranger danger" as a barrier to ridesharing/carpooling. I have not come across ways to deal with this in the research, mostly, I assume, because potential carpoolers usually work at the same place and therefore have a way to "check people out." Have you checked into the systems in Europe? Between 1990 and 1991, I was living in Germany, near Fulda which is east of Frankfurt. I wanted to continue to travel whenever possible after spending 3 months in 1989 travelling with a Eurorail pass. There was no internet or email available at that time. I found that many Europeans don't have cars and never get their driver's license so the way that they get around, especially the Germans, is using a ridesharing system called Mitfahrzentrale. I used this system, for example, to get to Berlin. I met the guy with a car in Kassel, I guess I must have taken the train there. I believe that he spoke very good English and we shared the cost of gas. It was all arranged by an office that I contacted. So they made the connection and this is why it seemed safe to me. He drove me close to the center of Berlin and helped me contact the people that I was visiting plus even helped me get on the underground. Great experience! I also lived in the Netherlands for a long time, but I never heard about this system existing there. I just checked and there are a number of websites available now. I just put Mitfahrzentrale and searched. You can click on the translation version of the websites. Basically "von" is "from" and "nach" is "to". http://www.hitchhikers.de/index.htm1 http://www.mitfahrgelegenheit.de/ I guess because it is part of the culture and has been around for awhile, there are not so many concerns about stranger danger. I guess that it is safer than hitchhiking. I don't know if this helps or not?
Good luck,
Gayle Hoffman
0 Recommends
You haven't saved any recommendations.
Messaging 0 colleagues