Carpooling Goes Social, Could be Driving to a Road Near You

Need a lift? If so, there's a new website that could help: Zimride. Designed to make “sharing rides for drivers and passengers fun and easy,” Zimride allows drivers to list their route, name their price, and make a few bucks (or simply cover the cost of gas) while traveling to and from work each day. According to Mashable, the site started in 2007 with a carpooling network for college campuses (a feature that is still prevalent on the company's site, http://public.zimride.com). Roughly 100 campuses have signed up to create their own networks. “If you look back at other forms of transportation … there's always that idea of networks and the idea of routes,” Zimride co-founder John Zimmer told Mashable. “So we feel that this is the natural way to move toward a ubiquitous form of transportation where anyone anywhere can say, ‘How am I going to get to LA this weekend? I could take a Southwest LUV flight, I could take the bus, or I could Zimride.' We want that new transportation verb, Zimride, to be available to everyone, everywhere.” Follow me @LouisBedigian