One of the more head-scratching aspects of what’s known as the “sharing economy” is that it’s often a container for the sort of activities that we used to just think of as selling services for money. “Peer-to-peer economy” is probably a more apt phrasing, though that ship seems to have sailed in the U.S. But over on All Things D, Liz Gannes profiles BlaBlaCar, the Paris-based company built around the notion of a truly shared city-to-city ride.

Some details, per Gannes:

The average BlaBlaCar car occupancy is 2.8 people (compared to a European average of 1.7 people per car), the average length of a journey is 213 miles, and the average price is 17 euros. Users plan ahead, but not much; drivers generally post about five days beforehand, and riders book a day or so in advance.

At the heart of BlaBla is the idea that simply recouping the costs of driving a car is enough to get drivers to participate. Prices are capped — in the U.K., for example, you can’t bring in more than the depreciation of your car and the relevant mileage and fuel allowances set by government on non-taxed business use. BlaBla takes an 11 percent cut.

That has proven motivation enough in Europe. According to September statistics from Bloomberg, the cost of a gallon of gas was $3.66 in the U.S., $7.75 in the U.K., $8.13 in France and $10.08 in Norway. Add to that the fact that in Europe, cities are just far apart enough to make sharing rides between them a sensible move. Zimride tried something similar in the U.S., but its intra-city offshoot Lyft has gained far more traction. The possibility is that the while U.S. geography tips the model in favor of sharing shorter trips, there’s still too much hassle without the added incentive of making money above and beyond compensation for your costs.

The BlaBla folks talk about what they’re up to as a way of fixing the inefficiencies of the admirable “hippie dream” of hitchhiking using technology. That includes simplifying the distribution of funds, upping trust levels using either a Facebook login or verified phone number, and setting meeting points easily using interactive maps. (The “BlaBla” name comes from the fact that users can set their preference level for the amount of talking they enjoy on a ride, on a scale of one to three; 91 percent of users select two Blas.) But there also more interesting tweaks made possible by rebooting the shared ride online, such as a “Ladies Only” feature that lets women filter for rides to be taken only with other women.

Postscript: After a reader noted that in Spain, where he lives, payment payment goes directly from rider to driver and thus BlaBlaCar couldn’t, it seems, get the above-mentioned 11 percent cut, I asked the company for clarification. It turns out that BlaBlaCar indeed claims that percentage from online bookings, but at the moment only transactions in France, where the company is based, are done completely online. According to the contact, “BlaBlaCar plans to roll out online booking over time in most countries to build more trust, commitment and transparency in the community.”

Nancy Scola is a Washington, DC-based journalist whose work tends to focus on the intersections of technology, politics, and public policy. Shortly after returning from Havana she started as a tech reporter at POLITICO.