During the winter of 2008, I was amazed when gas prices crept over $3.50 a gallon (not to mention when it went over $4.00). When this happened, I asked a buddy from work if he wanted to start car pooling. We have the perfect scenario, he only live 2 miles from my house, and his house was on the way to work for me.
The arrangement was, we would alternate weeks of driving, so for first week, I drove, the next week he drove, then me, then him…
My Benefits from Car Pooling:
- Lowered my monthly gas spending from $180 to $90.
- Reduced the wear and tear on my car by 1/2.
- I did my part to try to reduce oil prices by car pooling.
- I cut the carbon emissions I produced by half.
- Cut down on traffic on the highway by 1 car.
- Freed up 1 parking spot at work (our lot is pretty full, or was…).
- It’s nice to ride some mornings, instead of driving.
Once the gas prices fell to the low $2 range, we stopped car pooling at that time because of conflicts in schedules. However, if prices creep back up to the $3.50 or higher, we said we would start car pooling again.
Near the end of our car pool trips, we both started telecommuting once a week, and that was even better!
Below is the ultimate solution to high gas prices, if the weather and distance permits (which in my case, it doesn’t).
If gas prices get too high...
-D
Update, I forgot to add a few additional benefits:
- If you’re in an accident, you have a captive witness (unlikely, but still nice).
- Forces you to adhere to a more strict timetable, you don’t want to be late or pickup your buddy late.
Wow, a 50% savings is a great reason to carpool.
Last year I used to live close enough to school to ride a bike but my 50lb bookbag always got in the way of such endeavors and DC drivers scare me to death!
LOL, yeah I can imagine the DC cab drivers would be pretty intimidating!
I can see where it would be different in a big city!
My adventures in car pooling was pretty decent… A little frustrating at time, but overall more positive than negative.
Most likely, we will start it up again, but hopefully not too soon. I really do like the quiet time in the car alone driving to work. And the telecommute day helps a lot, believe it or not…
Cool site you got here! Best of luck in your endeavors.
Gotta love car pooling! I take the bus to work everyday and love it.
[...] Carpool, yeah this kind of sucks but it reduces your commuting cost by practically half!!! Not to mention extending the life of your vehicle! [...]
Gas prices these days are just getting higher, i think the government should focus more on alternative energy.’`”
gas prices will always increase that is why we should focus on alternative energy sources :