Peer2Politics

Article and image cross-posted from the SUMC blog. Photo credit: Mariordo.

Images and excerpt from the Sustainist Design Guide: How Sharing, Localism, Connectedness, and Proportionality are Creating a New Agenda for Social Design, by Michiel Schwarz and Diana Krabbendam with The Beach Network. Design: Robin Uleman.

One chilly morning last winter, I reconnected with an old friend, Joel Dietz, on a video chat. We hadn’t seen each other for years, and we’d each had several starts and stops in our lives since. He began telling me about his latest undertaking, Evergreen, a digital currency system that he described as “organic” and “without additives.” I was doing all I could to understand it, and he was struggling to fund it in a way that suited his vision. He needed money, and quickly, but he didn’t want to sabotage his ideals in the process.

Not everyone who needs transit lives within walking distance of a transit stop. Many, including the elderly, need a little help to get to the bus or train. And, as transit-oriented development drives up real estate prices in many areas, transit access is increasingly becoming an equity issue. Building a network of “Sharing Stops” to expand transit access can increase ridership while also increasing social capital in a neighborhood. Here’s how to get started.

Near Me, which enables anyone to create their own sharing platform, is also a valuable resource hub with a blogand podcast about the collaborative economy. The popular Near Me podcast, hosted by Near Me's Kevin Cohen, features thought leaders, pioneers, and movers and shakers of the collaborative movement. Here are their top 10 podcasts, including one with Shareable's co-founder Neal Gorenflo.

What I love best about the sharing economy is how it squeezes good value out of the unused bits of our society that would otherwise go to waste. And nowhere do you have so much waste as in our transportation system. A personal car uses less than 1% of its energy to move a passenger, and 80% of our passenger capacity is driving around empty. That’s hundreds of millions of empty seats in this country! Meanwhile, 45% of the country has no access to transit. What a perfect opportunity to share!