Americans weren't too keen on the proposed $100 gas rebate checks from Uncle Sam, so for now, the idea appears to be going away. Perhaps too many of us thought that accepting a crisp new Benjamin to put straight into the gas tank felt too much like taking a bribe. (Hey, the Sierra Club said it first, not me.)

But bribing people-uh...I mean creating an incentive-to stop driving seems like an idea worth trying. Enter the brand new Rideshare Reward$ program in California's Bay Area. Over the next three months, commuters there can earn up to $100 in either free gas or groceries, just by carpooling. Only newly converted, formerly solo drivers are eligible [PDF] -people who carpool already don't get an extra break.

This hundred-dollar idea is the latest brainstorm of the state's 511 Rideshare program, which is jointly-run by several government agencies concerned with transportation issues.

To get their brown bags with free veggies, meats, and the inevitable baguette poking out, new carpoolers must rideshare instead of drive for at least five days, at which point they earn a $10 credit to spend on gas or groceries at Safeway supermarkets. Riders can earn up to ten of these, or $100 total, through July, when the program ends. Then in December, 511 will award at random a $1,000 bonus credit to one person who carpooled 40 or more days during the program's three-month run.

If recruiting friends to share rides sounds like work, you don't have to bother. Every weekday morning, at designated pick-up spots in Oakland and throughout the Bay Area, plenty of would-be carpoolers jump into vehicles driven by perfect strangers-often a different stranger every day of the week-as part of the region's successful casual carpooling program. Drivers who would otherwise go solo-and sit in gridlock on the Bay Bridge trying to make it to work in San Francisco-happily open their car doors to unknown passengers so all can legally and smoothly sail through the speedy HOV lane and avoid the toll charge.

Free rides and free groceries? Now we're getting somewhere.

[511 Rideshare Reward$ via San Francisco Chronicle]

Photo: Safeway.com