Ridesharing Picks Up Speed

Commuters are warming to the practice of ridesharing, and websites aiming to make the process of finding commuting partners easier are increasingly appearing on the congested freeways of the Internet.

NuRide claims to be the nation's first incentive-based ridesharing network, giving its ridesharers discounts with big-named sponsors as rewards for sharing rides, similar to frequent flyer programs. The network has more than 22,000 members and states to have prevented more than 14,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions.

According to the NuRide website, 30 percent of carbon dioxide emissions come from motor vehicles. And of those vehicles, 78 percent of them have only one person inside. The Department of Transportation states that if 10 percent of people shared rides, congestion delays would be cut in half. With the abundance of ridesharing sites, perhaps we'll actually reach 10 percent soon.

RideShare, eRideShare, and RideShareOnline also let people search for commuting partners on virtual bulletin boards.

Sites like these are great for the folks who aren't fortunate enough to work for companies like Microsoft and Google, which offer free bus transport to their employees.

About a third of Microsoft's employees ride the Microsoft Connector bus to and from work in Redmond, WA. Employees not only get free transport, they get to check their email with the bus's free WIFI before they even get to work.

Further south, Google's employees ride the bus, too. The Silicon Valley-based company carries about a fourth of its employees to work each day in 32 biodiesel-fueled shuttle buses. Its buses also come with wireless Internet access, of course, and the company's Internet gurus can throw their bikes on the back of the bus and their dogs on their laps.