Carpooling to work has always been a good idea but with gas prices on the rise it's more appealing than ever. Other terms for carpooling are ride-sharing, lift-sharing, or slugging (kinda, at least around DC). Advantages? Here are a few:
- Lower gasoline cost. The single most important consideration.
- Lower vehicle maintenance cost. Driving less means less wear and tear on your vehicle.
- Faster travel time if you can take advantage of high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes, which are special lanes for vehicles with more than one (usually three or more) riders.
- More reliability for everyone involved. More cars to draw on mean that there's a higher chance that someone's car will be working.
- Other intangibles like pleasant conversation, time to read, etc.
To every yin there is a yang, so here are disadvantages:
- Less flexible travel times. You have to be in the car at the same time as the other people, and vice versa.
- Possibility of being inconvenienced if your driver for the day has an emergency to tend to, or just forgets to pick you up.
- Intangibles like foul BO, incessant droning from start to finish, etc.
I'm a bit embarrassed to admit this but the guy who lives next door to me (and the guy who lived there before him) worked in the same building that I did, and I never carpooled with them. Not just embarrassing, almost inexcusable. Part of it is my schedule (it's almost 3 AM now) but it's costing me. And it will cost me more. Maybe it's time to bite the bullet and get up with the rest of the world. 😉
Notwithstanding my sleeping habits, the first place to look should be your workplace since you have direct contact with those folks and can get a warm fuzzy whether they're going to be tolerable in the car or not. Barring any good fortune there, here are a few resources I found that might be of use:
- RideShare-Directory.com. Links to US national and regional ride-sharing sites.
- ERideShare.com. There were a couple of listings for my workplace in their system. This is a free service.
- CarpoolConnect.com. This listing site has a map mash-up giving start and end locations. Also free.
- Craigslist.org. It's got those, too.
- Wikipedia articles on carpooling and slugging.
I used to driver 30 miles to work a day and carpooling made a big difference in my budget. We would agree to carpool at least once a week and even with the small amount I could see the difference. The main problem we had was working different shifts. If you work in a more traditional environment I could see cutting your costs in half this way.
I once actually had a job that was literally 150 feet away from where I lived, I guess that’s the joys of living in a college dorm!
Carpooling is great for so many reasons. The fiscal reasons go without saying and it's also better for the environment. We all need to do our part today as some insurance for our future generations and carpooling is one small way we can do our part. I happen to live quite close to my work and I've biked to work instead of using our car. It's great exercise and it saves gas. It also lead me to lose 10 pounds! Not too bad, huh?!