For those of you who patiently bore my obsessive rants, posts, and questionnaires about dynamic ridesharing…you can see the resulting essay here, attached as a “written statement” to my profile for a contest sponsored by Keen Footwear, who look like a pretty interesting company based in Portland, OR. Winners announced by March 24. A lot of people are doing cooler things than essays–so I’m not considering a grand prize, but have to say I have my fingers crossed for the journalism prize. It can’t be helped that some of the funds would go toward relocation–though maybe the couple extra thousand is what will put me in the ballpark for a used hybrid! But I want to also pay myself for a few days of research into who, if anyone, is considering real-time ride-share systems, and what I can do to support those efforts. At the very least I want to check out the Urban Planning and Transport Studies institutions at UCLA and USC and squeak my wheels if no one is considering it as an option.
