My colleague and all round charity marketing legend, Lee Marshall announced the (beta) launch of an innovative new car sharing site, Ridekicks.
Ridekicks describes itself as “a place to share rides – with a twist.”
Social games like Foursquare and Gowalla have been pretty big on the uptake recently enjoying substantial growth and fueling the drive toward a more engaging and integrated social web. For me, their appeal is in how they manage to involve real life interaction with social media applications in a really quite addictive way, though I think they’re quite heavily limited to those of us lucky enough to use a top end mobile device like an iPhone – the charm is somewhat lost whilst sitting at a desk.
Ridekicks connects drivers with potential passengers for the very eco-friendly and economically advantageous purposes of journey sharing. It’s added twist is that you build up points by taking journeys or by giving rides which you build up as a competative game. High scorers are awarded titles including ‘king of the road’, and the site promises other eventual benefits.
For those thinking of attending festivals this year, it could be a really good opportunity to save some money on otherwise expensive train, bus or taxi fares. Or at a more everyday level, consider minimising your outgoings by car sharing the journey to work through Ridekicks. Britain is hideously bad at managing an effective public transport system, so making the most out of the existing road traffic seems like a really progressive move that we can all make as individuals.
I like the idea a lot, and I really like the name. Good luck Lee!
