But while Americans have been slower to adopt Internet-arranged carpooling, they have eagerly embraced other kinds of "collaborative consumption," in which individuals use the Web to share, rent or sell their own goods and services.
She cleaned houses on Long Island, where she shared rented rooms with six roommates.
She lived in a shared rented apartment and had $5,000 in savings.
By the second year they will be starting a whole new phase, happily sharing rented flats and houses with the friends they have made.
She's living in a shared rented flat, she tells me, but is moving out "because I want to find somewhere cheaper".
My partner spent an unpaid month volunteering in Philadelphia, working out of a cold office with shared, rented cellphones and no computers.
We are shared, rented and occupied".
Since the global financial meltdown, "people have reverted to old market behaviours that involve trust - swapping, sharing, renting, bartering", she says.
They decided to share rent on communal premises, share invitation lists and hold joint exhibition openings.
In an article we wrote together, for example, he emphasized: "Whether firms share rents because of managers' desire to help workers or because of the threat that workers will withhold effort is an open question.
