Discussion: Ridesharing to orienteering events

Hey AttackPoint,
I was wondering if anyone has come across any websites where you can find ridesharing partners to get to orienteering events. I found this one: CocoRide.com.au but it only seems to be for Australian events. Are there any other ridesharing sites that you use?

You don't say in which country you live, apart from, presumably not Australia. In UK, www.liftshare.com is a free website for offering lifts and asking for lifts, which can be regular journeys or to specific locations. For music festivals etc, they have special pages. www.openadventure.com (5, 12, 24 hours and expedition length adventure racing with navigation) has a map for each event with flags of home locations of other participants, but that doesn't allow for people travelling from places other than home eg work / relatives / friends. www.sleepmonsters.co.uk forum (adventure racing, but many people also go orienteering) often has travel posts (for people and / or kitO, which sometimes lead to liftshares. OMM has a lift share section of their forum for the event at end of October each year. www.nopesport.com (informal orienteering forum, UK based) also have a travel section of forum, mainly for national events. If you're a member of an orienteering club, then worth asking there - and neighbouring clubs, too.

There are many websites in the US, such as Craigslist, that offer drivers and riders an opportunity to connect. There's even a directory of these ridesharing sites...but nothing specific to sharing a ride to and from an athletic competition for a few hours. With gas prices approaching $5, such a site sounds like an idea whose time has come!

Perhaps a local club might set up a RewardRide account, and promote ridesharing on their Events page. It certainly is an environmental idea, economical, and could promote more of a "club" feeling...and also reduce parking lot overload. It is a great idea.

Back in the '60's I used to hitch all over the country. But unfortunately ridesharing and hitchhiking in the US hasn't been too popular ever since that memorable hitchhiker scene in the 1974 film Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

You can still pick up hitchhikers if you check them out carefully first...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIC90Vnc-OI.

This is an active topic at the moment for us (QOC), and my secret plan is to help promote the concept nationwide (OUSA) eventually, if we can crack the problem at least a little. I readily acknowledge that this may just wind up as yet another one of several sisyphean tasks I've attempted on behalf of orienteering.

So far, we have only publicly deployed (on a trial basis) a widget from RideAmigos. The QOC Board identified several factors that would be problematic for more widespread adoption of this particular system, so after looking at at least 30 alternatives, we've narrowed down the current investigation to "just" seven others.

If anyone is interested in studying this with us, I'd be happy to share our criteria and assumptions. There's an interesting website that has been useful, but we are definitely oriented towards a ("non-dynamic") solution that works to get club members to/from events, and not a general "for the public", to/from anywhere, and/or carpooling-to-work type of approach.

I think it would be ideal to add a forum here for that purpose.

The Irish Mountain Running Association has been running a carpool for many years - maybe ask them how it works?

In relation to IMRA

You go to the race your driving to.
You add the number of spaces you have in your car
You add the route your going
People then click "Book" and the seat is yours!

Easy and effective.

Then again, everything about IMRA works.
From volunteering to race organising to results to the awesome website. Everything just works.