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Tuesday, 01 July 2008

Join a Carpool

With gas prices constantly on the rise, carpooling is a great way to mitigate the costs. Find people in your area who have a commute similar to yours and start reaping the benefits! Carpooling enables you to save money, reduce CO2 emissions, and decrease traffic congestion. Having trouble finding neighbors down to ride? Not a problem, there are several carpool websites offering to set you up with a compatible carpool group!

BENEFITS for the Environment:

The gasoline that our cars burn as they move down the road has a significant impact on our air. Pollutants like nitrous oxides, carbon monoxide, and ozone are byproducts from burning gasoline. In addition, 20 pounds of carbon dioxide are produced from burning just one gallon of gas. Notorious greenhouse gases are accumulating in our atmosphere, which may cause drastic climate change. Carpooling takes more cars off the road and effectively reduces the amount harmful pollutants and greenhouse gases that are being produced.

BENEFITS for Your Wallet:

The average household spends $2,834 a year on fuel. Add this to the cost of maintenance, insurance and other car-related expenses, and it is easy to see that cars are an expensive luxury. However, carpooling can help you split these costs among your passengers and car sharing can save you even more money.

BENEFITS for the Community:

If you've ever been stuck in traffic, you know that there are far too many cars on the road and far too few people in them. Carpooling helps take cars off the road. This means less traffic congestion, less smog, less noise, fewer car accidents, and less taxpayer money wasted on road maintenance and construction.

Cost: Low

If you have a regular commute, carpooling can actually save you money by reducing your transportation costs.

Time and effort: Moderate

Carpooling is easy and not too much of an extra effort, especially on the days that other people drive. Plus, you get to use the carpool lane, which will save you time on your commute!

How to set up a carpool:

If you have a regular commute to and from your workplace, driving probably gets a little boring. With carpooling, you get to socialize and chat with your passengers, or you can just ride peacefully while someone else drives you to work. Setting up a carpooling schedule is simple:

Check your workplace to see if there is anyone who lives near your area and is willing to carpool with you. If there isn't, you might want have more luck by checking out a few websites with carpool listings:

          eRideShare
          Carpool Connect
          Carpool World


Determine the schedule:

          What is the most efficient route to pick up each person?
          What time does everyone need to arrive at work?
          What time does each person need to be ready in the morning?
          What time does each person leave work in the evening?
          How long should you wait for someone if they are late?
          Which days of the week does each person drive?


Don't forget to establish a few ground rules. Some suggestions:

          Is smoking allowed?
          Are either eating or drinking allowed?
          Can you play the radio?
          What station can you play?
          How long should you wait for someone if they are late?


Start carpooling!

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Comments (2)
RSS comments
1. 11-11-2009 23:01
How about building carpool lanes that will set up special privileges to people who want to share a ride. Btw, got a problem with my 50 mpg subaru parts car and it cannot get a carpool sticker.
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2. 18-12-2008 01:40
Carticipating on the iPhone
Since you double the efficiency of a vehicle when sharing a ride, a carticipation rate of 10% by American drivers would translate to an increase of 5% in efficiency of the overall US vehicle fleet. Accomplish the same with vehicle technology would cost the automotive industry billions in R&D. On a cost basis, carticipative social change would trump, and yet compliment new automotive technology. 
 
US oil consumption is 20.73 million bbl/day (2004 est.) according to  
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/print/us.html 
 
A 5% increase in efficiency means 1Mbbl/day of demand destruction in US oil consumption. At $40 - $100/barrel, this means $40M-$100M/day of value creation, not to mention dividends to the environment and our national security. This is a big prize. 
 
We recently gave a talk on carticipation at the Silicon Valley iPhone Developers' Meetup in Palo Alto and posted the video here (select "high quality" mode): 
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaphdB6Wafs
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