Boston plays home to a number of next-generation means of transportation, namely bike-shares and car-shares. They work fine for people too fed up to take the T or unwilling to catch a cab. But for those who live further out in the ‘burbs, further away from transit hubs, there needs to be an easier way of getting from A to B.

One woman, who attempted to live in the vastness of Kansas without a car, is attempting to bring hitchhiking’s sexiness back. She came up with the idea when listening to a radio show that was discussing how steeply hitchhiking has dwindled over the years, according to Fast Co. Exist. Unable to complete her day-to-day errands without a car, she realized that perhaps the most efficient way of getting around was by catching a ride with complete strangers, or better yet, acquaintances.

Safety is always a concern when it comes to hitchhiking. We’ve all seen those horror movies where the crazy collegiate teens trekking to spring break pick up some scuzz who turns out to be a serial murder. Jenny O’Brien of Lawrence, Kansas has a secure system all figured out.

She came up with Lawrence OnBoard, a membership-based system that background checks participants in order to keep hitchhiking safe. As billed on the site, “Drivers get a window cling with their member number and riders receive a folding dry-erase board with the club logo.  Riders can go to any safe road side, write their destination on the white board, and catch a ride with any willing driver.”

When picked up, the rider sends a text message to Lawrence OnBoard with either the driver’s number or the license plate. A record of the ride is then produced to make sure everyone parts ways happily and healthily. So far, the company maintains a 95 percent rate of picking up passengers within 30 minutes out of 121 trial runs.

The best part is drivers don’t have to be registered to the system in order for a hitchhiker to be picked up. They can still text the license plate number for Lawrence OnBoard’s records but O’Brien is confident they’ll want to be a part of the team.

We reached out directly to O’Brien to told us in an email, “Registered drivers will make the system safer, easier and more reliable.  Drivers will be motivated to sign up because they can win prizes for picking up riders.  In either case, riders will need to use good judgment when interacting with strangers.”

Lawrence OnBoard seems to be working perfectly fine in more rural parts of the country like Northeast Kansas, so the question remains how well it could work in areas like New England. O’Brien is still mulling the matter over.

“What is the sweet spot for this system to work best. I’m already seeing variable results depending on location.” she continued. “I know it works very well as a neighborhood solution, and can be used in suburbs to solve the first and last mile’ problem that keeps people from using much of the available transit. I don’t think it will work well in dense urban areas, but those already have transit options.”

Image via Shutterstock