Summary: <a href="http://www.theotherhalf.acmescience.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Ep5-1.png"></a><br> Transportation matters. When people need to get places, but don’t have a good way to do so, it’s more than just a drag for them – it’s also a drag for the economy. <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Srvy_JobsProximity.pdf">Americans are living increasingly far from their places of employment</a>, which knocks walking or biking out of the way for many. And not everyone has a car to get themselves from place to place (and even if they did, the cost to the environment would be pretty steep). Moreover, <a href="http://www.citylab.com/commute/2016/10/what-cities-have-the-most-people-living-near-rapid-transit/503429/">public transportation in U.S. cities</a>, <a href="http://www.citylab.com/commute/2016/10/what-cities-have-the-most-people-living-near-rapid-transit/503429/">in particular</a>, <a href="http://www.citylab.com/commute/2016/10/what-cities-have-the-most-people-living-near-rapid-transit/503429/">does not always serve all city residents equitably</a>. <br> Of course, there’s always…carpooling.<br> In this episode, Anna and Annie discuss the efficiency of ride sharing, the topic of a recent paper, “<a href="http://www.nature.com/articles/srep42868">Scaling Law of Urban Ride Sharing</a>,” authored by this episode’s guest Steven Strogatz, professor of applied mathematics at Cornell University, along with several colleagues: Remi Tachet, Oleguer Sagarra, Paolo Santi, Giovanni Resta, Michael Szell, and Carlo Ratti, the director for MIT’s <a href="http://senseable.mit.edu">Senseable City Lab</a>. Listen in, and get ready to change your Lyft settings to “Line”.<br> <br> Music from <a href="https://soundcloud.com/lowercasen">LOWERCASE n</a>.<br> You can <a href="http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/feeds.soundcloud.com/stream/312247790-acmescience-riding-with-stangers.mp3">download this episode</a> or, even better, subscribe to the podcast <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-other-half/id994999190?mt=2">in iTunes</a> or <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/acmeScienceTheOtherHalf">via RSS</a><br>
