Comments on: On cars and jitneys

By: Henrik

Henrik — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 22:30:22 +0000

I’ve used the system described by McTrex in Almaty and it generally works great. Something similar in Bishkek and other Central Asian cities. Prices vary depending on your language skills and how obviously you’re a foreigner:)

In Germany, http://www.mitfahrzentrale.de is popular among people sharing rides between cities (trains are awesome but expensive in Germany, and so is driving on the Autobahn with no speed limits)

By: veganprimate

veganprimate — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 15:08:07 +0000

A coworker from the Philipines told me they have that kind of thing there. And I was also told that at one time there were unofficial jitneys in the black neighbord in Pittsburgh. They would pull over to busstops and offer rides.

I think it’s an awesome idea and I wish it would get reinstated.

Now, I’m curious about the phenomenon whereby Americans (I gather this is not the case for Europeans) have been brainwashed against picking up hitchikers (b/c they could be potential ax murderers or rapists) and how they would affect the appearance of jitneys in the future.

By: McTrex

McTrex — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 13:33:00 +0000

@Escapee

In Almaty you stand next to the road pointing your finger down. Very similar

By: McTrex

McTrex — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 13:31:42 +0000

My wife is from Almaty, the biggest city in Kazakhstan. They use this system there and it works very good. If you’re going out in the middle of the winter, even when it’s late it night it will take you at most 5 minutes before a car stops and takes you to where you need to go. It costs about 2-5 dollars depending on the distance.

By: Jeff Morley

Jeff Morley — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 06:25:12 +0000

Lots of Jeepneys in the Philippines, believe those came from when the US was overseeing things!

By: pj

pj — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 04:35:37 +0000

@DJ: Car sharing programs such as Zipcar come close to what you are suggesting. I’m a car fanatic, but car sharing really saves a lot of money. I plan to use it when I move to the city, I hope the idea catches on with car fanatics so I could splurge on a fairly priced sports car rental from time to time.

By: DJ

DJ — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 13:13:20 +0000

Slightly Off Topic-

I’ve speculated at how driving habits would change if we changed the way we pay for driving. Now people pay by writing checks- Checks for car payments, insurance, repairs, and gas purchased on credit cards.

How much would we drive if we paid by putting quarters into a slot on the dash board? Starting the car would take a bunch of quarters. Then, you’d put in more quarters for the distance you drive. Add more quarters if you drive aggressively. Fewer quarters if you share the ride with someone else.

Coin operated cars are probably not in our future, but you could simulate a coin operated car by transferring money into an internet savings account every day that you drive. It gets you thinking about your driving habits and you’d have money saved for a new car when you need it.

By: escapee

escapee — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 18:38:05 +0000

The city where I live has a sort of jitney system (albeit illegal, I’m sure) in place. There’s a hand signal (index finger pointing at the ground while moving the wrist rapidly up and down) that people use in my city that signifies that they want a ride and will pay for it. Anyone will do, not necessarily a cab.

Has anyone else seen this where they live or is it particular to my city?

By: FHR

FHR — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 12:58:05 +0000

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Share_taxi