On a recent spring morning.Susan Alexander, a retired government intelligence analyst, left her Maryland home,climbed into her Volkswagen Passat and drove about three miles to pick up two strangers.She battled rush-hour traffic on the Capital Beltway and George Washington MemorialParkway before dropping them off at Reagan National Airport. She didn\'t earn a centfor her trouble, and that was the point.

Alexander is a member of the Silver Spring TimeBank-one of more than 100 such exchanges around the world trying to build communityby exchanging time credits for services instead of dollars and cents. \"I havetime,\" she said. \"I like giving the gift of time to other people.\"

In Alexander\'s case, passengers Mary and AlLiepold were grateful for the ride, but it wasn\'t charity. Mary, a retired writerand editor for nonprofit organizations, used time credits she banked for editingwork and baking. Senior citizens who don\'t drive, the Liepolds cashed in their creditsto catch a flight to Montreal for a five-day vacation.

Without money changing hands or shifting betweenvirtual accounts, the airport drop-off was more like a coffee party than a taxiride. Driver and passengers chatted about projects they\'ve completed for the timebank, and no one raised an eyebrow when Mary said she likes \"to avoid the conventionaleconomy.\"

\"The beauty of this is that you make friends,\"Mary Liepold said. \"You don\'t just get services.\"

The Silver Spring Time Bank formed in 2015 andhas about 300 members, said co-founder Mary Murphy. Last year, she said, l,000 hourswere exchanged for basic home repairs, dog walking, cooking and tailoring, amongother services, without the exchange of money. \"You get to save that moneythat you would have spent,\" she said. \"You get to meet somebody else inyour community and get to know that person. That\'s a bonus that\'s part of an exchange.\"

A deal performed partly to make friends wouldseem to go against classical economics and one of Benjamin Franklin\'s most memorablesayings: \"Time is money.\" To those at the forefront of modem time-banking,that is the appeal.