This post is sponsored by Zimride.

As the largest ridesharing company in America, Zimride makes sharing rides with strangers cool (and safe).

Zimride opens its ridesharing platform to East Coast residents, beginning with a route between New York and Washington D.C. As the largest online ridesharing service in North America, Zimride has over 360,000 users based primarily on the West Coast and across 140 universities and corporate campuses. Zimride’s expansion to the East Coast today marks the first time this new form of transportation is available to residents traveling between cities along the nation’s most traveled driving corridor.

This isn’t yesterday’s carpool. It’s the rideshare reinvented using online social networks to connect drivers and passengers heading the same direction. With the current economic climate, high gas prices and the prevalence of Facebook, the timing is perfect for ridesharing to go mainstream. The financial benefits of ridesharing are simple: the average passenger from New York to Washington D.C. pays $25 for a seat, and the average Zimride driver makes $150 on a round trip selling three seats. Today’s announcement of 200 million miles shared on our platform translates to over $100 million saved in car expenses, and 190,000 barrels of oil reduced.

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