rebu is a person-to-person network for sharing rides, rooms, rigs, signal and stories. Healthy fun, limited risk, and a lot less lonely.
Most cars carry one person. Someone is already driving your way, and plenty of them would enjoy the company.
Across Africa and much of the world, a hand signal shows your direction and a driver going that way picks you up. We forgot that here. Learn the signs, or help us make our own.
New in town, lonely, or just stuck indoors since 2020? A short ride is a short conversation, and short conversations add up.
The Craigslist rideshare board is mostly dead, and ride offers are scattered across forums and group chats. We want them on one map.
Free rides mean more people at shows, markets and local spots, spending there instead of on a surge fare.
Everyone you meet knows something you don't.— Bill Nye
A ten-minute ride across town can pass along a job lead, a recipe, a book, a friend, or the one sentence you or they needed to hear that day. It runs both ways. Worst case, they're out of your life by the next stop.
You've got a phone and a card in your pocket. You don't need a plan to get somewhere, just a direction. Worst case: a one-person tent, a rest stop, or a spot slightly off the road behind a tree, and tomorrow's ride comes with a story. Be a little Forrest Gump about it. (He ran, but you get the idea.)
Train riders still pass hand-made route guides to each other as gifts: every line from here to there, and how to get along it. The rebu map is that gift for everyone else: corridors of real people who drive from here to there, and might have a seat for you.
Learn to cook for yourself on the road. Learn which mushrooms won't kill you. Eat a $1 can of cold beans off a tailgate and call it dinner. "I'm a foodie" is dating-app clickbait; this is the real thing.
Along the way: waystations. Some hosts want the whole road to pass through. A floor, a backyard, a spare room, a spot for your tent. Mark your place as a waystation and it becomes a node on the network, a safety net for anyone on the move who doesn't mind roughing it.
Not every waystation has a host. Old-time travelers chalked marks on fences for whoever came next. rebu brings that back as trail marks on the map: a quiet spot to sleep, a coat or tent or bike stashed as a gift, a bag of food you were given and can't carry, or "when you get here, message this Session user." Whoever finds it marks it taken, gone or wrong, the person who left it gets a heads-up, and the map stays honest. Think of it as a modern Appalachian Trail stretched across the whole country: trail magic, trail angels and hiker boxes, wherever the road goes. Campers already do something like this with apps like iOverlander, and we're fans.
Just rolled into town? Open the local calendar: potlucks, shows, markets, cleanups, open mics and meetups that neighbors, libraries and local groups have made public. The fastest way to stop being a stranger somewhere is to show up to something.
And turn on road notes when you cross a line. Other maps say "Welcome to Michigan." rebu says what changes when you get there: cannabis still illegal here, rules on hitchhiking, open containers, sleeping in your car. Plus heads-ups from travelers who came through before you. An overlay you can switch on and off.
And yes, the wandering line sits on every dating profile right next to Live Laugh Love. It's still true: wandering isn't the same as being lost.
👍 Chicago → San Diego. Rides and couches only.That's all it takes. Hop in a stranger's car and you never know who you'll meet or where the night goes: a new friend, a quick date, a story you'll still be telling in ten years. Fewer walks of shame, more rides of shame. Your ride, your rules, and anyone can say no at any time.
"Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. Love is the law, love under will."Aleister Crowley, The Book of the Law, 1904
Trucks, trailers, mini excavators, kilns, bikes, mopeds. List your stuff and your terms. Sometimes the terms are just "bring it back."
Look down your street: rows of parked cars, sitting idle most of the day. Owners can open theirs to neighbors they trust, with phone and NFC keys and their own rules.
Stays for free, for a trade, or for a little. Old-school couch surfing, plus waystations: hosts who want travelers passing through.
Every block is full of Wi-Fi networks. Link them into a community mesh, add private messaging, and connection stops being a monthly bill. More below.
Somebody out there has exactly what you need and doesn't know you exist. Say what you want and let them find you, to buy, borrow or trade.
"Need a drill for the weekend." "Looking for a car around $3,000, under 150k miles, runs." Someone scrolls by and says: I've got that.
Post a short job: move a couch, fix a fence, help with a harvest. Neighbors and travelers passing through pick it up.
Rolling through town? Post what you can do and how long you're around. Welders, cooks, painters, coders, musicians: spot work finds you.
In 1889, traveling workers wrote down a code for life on the road. Here's ours.
Our promise: rebu will never require a phone number. Sign up with an email or a Session ID.
Nobody answers calls anymore, and most of us sit on Wi-Fi all day: home, work, the library, the coffee shop, the hospital, the big-box store. An old phone or tablet on Wi-Fi covers most of what the monthly plan does. Stop paying for what you don't use.
Put your network on the rebu map, or name it so travelers can tell (something like "rebu.life · free"), even if it's throttled or limited. Use a guest network and check your provider's terms.
Get a Google Voice number, or a free one from an app like TextNow, and register Signal with it. Or skip numbers entirely: Session doesn't tie your account to a phone number at all. (Some virtual numbers can't receive Signal's code, so test yours first.)
Signal group calls hold up to 75 people. Put them on the calendar: family night, friends, a 15-minute neighborhood check-in about anything. Signal Stories, not Meta.
Who knows anyone's number by heart anymore? In a hospital or a jail, your phone and your 2FA are out of reach. Lifeline is the idea: call one toll-free number from any phone, punch in your code and PIN, and hear your people's numbers or get connected.
Login codes shouldn't depend on a carrier. We want sign-in codes delivered over Signal and Session, starting with rebu's own.
For people without a phone plan: rebu Signal, Session and Telegram contacts watched around the clock, where a trained operator calls 911 for you and relays both ways. Not live yet. Until it is, and whenever you can, dial 911 directly.
Google Voice can't call 911. In the US, a phone with no plan can generally still dial 911 over the cell network, so keep one charged. Save your local police non-emergency number too (in Chicago, it's 311).
Somewhere else? Put your thumbs up. Every city is invited.
We're looking for collaborators: developers, designers, organizers, drivers, hosts, and philanthropists willing to back this with funding, gear, time, or anything else you've got.
👍 Get in touch