Neighbors sharing the drive to Tahoe

RideShareTahoe gets people to Lake Tahoe without a car of their own, cuts the traffic and emissions on I-80 and US-50, and connects skiers and riders who want a crew to share the drive with.

RideShareTahoe is a program of ShareVita, a California 501(c)(3) nonprofit. ShareVita builds free tools that help neighbors share what they already have, so communities get stronger and nobody has to go it alone. Our other program, ShareSkippy, pairs dog owners with neighbors who want time with a dog. The idea behind both is the same: most of what people need is already in their neighborhood, going unused. A spare seat on the way to the slopes. A free afternoon and a love of dogs. We build the simple, free tools that connect those neighbors. Think mutual aid, not a marketplace.

For Tahoe, that looks like this. Every full car is three or four fewer cars idling on I-80 on a powder Saturday. Every shared trip puts a day on the mountain within reach for someone without a car, or without a car they trust in the snow. And a lot of first rides turn into the crew you keep going up with.

The idea started with a simple problem: I wanted to go skiing, but I didn't have a car. Renting one was expensive, I didn't want to make the long drive by myself, and trying to find a ride felt like solving a puzzle with missing pieces. There were WhatsApp groups, Discord servers, Reddit threads, Facebook pages… all full of people offering or looking for rides.

So I'd spend half my night bouncing between them, scrolling endlessly, hoping to spot someone going my way. The community existed. I just couldn't reach it.

I was frustrated that there wasn't one place to connect with everyone, filter by date and destination, and actually match with the right people.

So I built it.

RideShareTahoe is my attempt to fix that chaos: to give mountain lovers one clean, simple, friendly place to connect. No more scattered group chats. No more digging. Just people helping each other get outside.

Kaia Colban, founder of ShareVita and RideShareTahoe

Anyone who loves Tahoe and wants to get there with a lighter footprint. In practice that is mostly skiers and snowboarders living in San Francisco, Oakland and the East Bay, Sacramento and Reno, many of them with an Epic or Ikon pass and no car, or a car they would rather leave at home when chain controls go up.

• Passengers who need a seat and are happy to split gas.
• Drivers who are going up anyway and have empty seats.
• New arrivals to the Bay who want a ski crew, not just a ride.
• Summer visitors too: hikers, climbers and lake days count.