A Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Sharing Economy

Sep 24, 2014 3:55 PM ET
Paul Minett

Audio File

Nobody hitchhikes anymore. Back in the 1980s getting a ride with a stranger became decidedly un-trendy. Rugged individualism was in and ridesharing was out. But now, with the advent of social media and mobile platforms, ridesharing is making a come-back. This week’s guests on Sea Change Radio are Paul Minett, the founder of the Ridesharing Institute in Auckland, NZ and Mark Svenvold, a journalist and Professor at Seton Hall University who recently profiled Minett’s work on ridesharing for Orion Magazine.

Dubbed by some as the Johnny Appleseed of the new ridesharing, Minett points out that if everybody carpooled one day a week we could see as much as a 20 percent reduction in traffic volumes. The corresponding reduction in traffic jams and carbon emissions would also be pretty great. Catch a ride with us now, across the planet, to hear what it will take to put ridesharing back in vogue.