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'Carpooling' (also known as 'ride-sharing', 'lift-sharing'), is shared use of a car, in particular for commuting to work, often by people who each have a car but travel together to save costs and in the interest of other socio-environmental benefits mentioned below. There are sometimes special facilities for carpoolers, including designated pick-up points and high-occupancy vehicle lanes which are also at times opened up to designated cars with multiple riders. Carpool projects have been around in fairly structured form going back to the mid-seventies, and in recent years have begun to make much more extensive use of the internet and software support systems. With the recent advent of mobile phones and SMS, there is a push to integrate these technologies into more flexible systems on the web.
Ride sharing is an alternative to get to and connect with people at other large events, such as music festivals and conferences.
Carpools may be formed through word of mouth by friends and colleagues, or through online carpooling services.
There is also another system, car sharing, which is often mistaken with carpooling.

Contents

Advantages

Disadvantages

See also

References

External links

Advantages

★ Carpool participants save money by sharing the cost of driving one car. Driving one car saves on gasoline, tolls, parking and vehicle maintenance.

★ Carpools decongest roads.

★ Carpools reduce pollution and carbon dioxide emissions thereby reducing global warming.

★ Carpools reduces driving related stress for participants who are not driving on a specific ride. The participants take turns sharing their vehicles and driving with others.

★ Carpools may provide social connections in an increasingly disconnected society. New online carpooling services are offering new ways to make social connections through discussion sites and custom ridesharing services.

★ Some larger carpools offer "sweeper services" of late pick-up options for people having to stay longer at work. One form of backup is an arrangement with a local taxi company.

★ There are designated carpool lanes on highways (usually called High-Occupancy Vehicle, or HOV, lanes), which may make travel faster. Some businesses offer premier parking for carpoolers, and finding a spot to park one car is always easier than finding a spot for more.

★ In the "dynamic carpool" concept the system does one-to-one matching automatically, and all that both, the driver and passenger have to do is accept the match done by the system.

Disadvantages

★ Drivers carry the additional burden of potential legal action from passengers in case of an accident.

★ When carpooling, it becomes difficult to run errands on the way to and from the common locations.

★ Tends to be complicated to reliably organize and is difficult to maintain, due to changing travel patterns and needs. One approach to remedy this problem has been implemented by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority; signs mark locations outside of their metro stops and large bus stations where drivers can share rides with other passengers in an orderly fashion.^[1]

See also

★ Car sharing

★ Hitchhiking

★ New Mobility Agenda

★ Public transportation

★ Shared transport

★ Slugging

★ Sustainable transportation

★ When You Ride Alone You Ride with bin Laden

References

1. http://www.wmata.com/metrorail/car_sharing.cfm

http://www.carpool.com.pt

External links

★ Blog on Future of Personal Transportation, share your thought about the future of carpool!

★ Definitions and benefits of carpooling/ridesharing

★ Carpool / Rideshare Advocacy Group - Traffic Bulldog