Tag Archives: los angeles

Stories from the Road – Nerding Out

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I split my time between LA and SF, driving from one to the other about every three weeks. Before I discovered Zimride, I’d try to carpool with friends, but our schedules hardly ever lined up. So I was spending lots of money on gas, feeling like an environmental disaster, and driving alone most of the time.

Zimride has made my commute so much better. It’s such a user-friendly and efficient system. I hardly have to spend time finding riders, and I can always find people whose schedules match mine. Plus most of the people are friendly, interesting, and care about the world. Really, I’ve been surprised and pleased that almost everyone has been fun, creative, and interesting to talk to.

I once drove with a young art student who was as excited as I was to nerd out about performance-art theory and how the art world works. Recently, I had a great time driving this guy who was into a lot of the same music as me. And another rider turned me on to the podcast “How Did This Get Made?”, which is ridiculous and hilarious. I’ve had so many memorable rides and met so many cool people thanks to Zimride — it has truly made my life better.

A big thank you to Jessica for her story. Make sure to read the other stories from Harmony, Jane, and Julianna. If you have a story that you want to share, please send your Story from the Road to community@zimride.com!

- Your Zimride Crew

Our Favorite Road Trip Itineraries: SF to LA, The Scenic Route

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7:30 a.m.- Pick up pastries and coffee at Tartine Bakery, hands down one of the best bakeries in the country.

8:00 a.m.- Drive South on Guerrero, continue onto San Jose Ave, then merge onto I-280 South (the traffic is usually better than the 101) and in 4.8 miles take a slight right onto CA 1-S.Tip: This would be a good time to take a Dramamine if windy roads make you woozy.

8:30 am- Pull over at one of the overlooks on the side of the highway between Pacifica and Half Moon Bay and take in the incredible views. Then go check out the Half Moon Bay State Beach and watch the surfers.

By Margot Loren

9:00 a.m.- Get back on the road and continue heading south on CA-1.

10:00 a.m.- Stop in Santa Cruz for delicious brunch sandwiches at Cafe Delmarett. To get there take a slight right onto Mission St., turn right onto Laurel St., and turn left at Pacific Ave.

11:00 p.m.- From Santa Cruz, get back onto CA-1 S for 48 miles, then turn right on Point Lobos to check out some more natural beauty.

12:00 p.m.- Get your camera ready, because the scenery at Point Lobos State Reserve in Carmel is breathtaking.

12:30 p.m.- Want more epic views? Stop just 11 miles south of Point Lobos and take in the grandeur of Bixby Bridge.

Sequoia Hughes, “Bixby bridge” June 26, 2009 via Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution.

12:45 p.m.- Continue south on CA-1.

2:30 p.m.- Ever wondered what it would be like to be a billionaire? Go take a tour of Hearst Castle and pretend you’re royalty for an hour. It’s just off the CA-1 on Hearst Castle Rd.

Rie H, “Castle - 11” August 3rd, 2008 via Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution.

3:30 p.m.- You can’t drive through California and not stop by at least one vineyard. Penman Springs Vineyard is one of our favorites. It’s a scenic family-run vineyard with great wine and tasty snacks. They also make their own olive oil! To get there, head south on the CA-1 for 12 miles, then take a left onto CA-46 E for 4 miles, turn right onto Union Rd, take the first left to stay on Union Rd, and then turn right onto Penman Springs Rd. Don’t forget to spit (not swallow) the wine if you’re driving!

6:00 p.m.- Continue 152 miles south on the CA-1 and stop in the beautiful and quaint Santa Barbara. Pick up some authentic and delicious tacos at one of the many taquerias in town (we recommend Lilly’s) and head to Hendry’s Beach to watch the sunset.

7:00 p.m.- Take the 101 S for two hours to get to LA.

8:00 p.m.- Welcome to the city of angels! This is the perfect time arrive in LA- you’ve skipped the crazy rush hour traffic and there’s still time to get dinner and go out.

Hector Sanchez, “Los Angeles Downtown area” March 16, 2008 via Flickr, Creative Commons

Heading to LA? There’s a route for that

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SF to LAWe launched Zimride with the vision of building a new form of transportation by creating a community marketplace for drivers to monetize the empty seats in their cars. Today we are excited to announce the launch of our new public platform focused on popular routes.

Over the last four years, we’ve successfully launched Zimride communities at over 100 universities and companies across 30 states in the U.S. In each of these communities we’ve built up an active base of users sharing rides, whether it has been students sharing rides home on the weekend or people carpooling to work every day. In all, Zimride users have logged over 100,000,000 miles traveled.

But Zimride still hasn’t been for everyone. Today that changes. We are launching our first promoted route dubbed “the Sunshine Route”: San Francisco to Los Angeles. Over the last couple weeks, we have jump-started the route with an incredible team of route builders, so users will have options from Day One. So far during our week of testing, more than 50 seats have been booked and we currently have an inventory of 100 seats available. Seats are selling fast, so if you want a ride to LA book one today before they sell out:

Find a Zimride to LA

And for everyone who is driving to LA, you’ll receive a $20 driver bonus payout along with the money you charge for your seats by posting your SF > LA ride in the month of August:

Be a Zimride driver

SF to LA is just our first route and we’ll be launching more within the next few months. Let us know what you think and what route you want to see us launch next. For users who are part of private networks, nothing changes. You will still have access to your organization’s network to share rides with others in your trusted community or organization. However, private networks will be seeing several interface and functionality improvements over the next few months.

We have a lot more exciting news in store in the coming weeks, so make sure to stay tuned!