What is a Carpool?

Carpooling is an arrangement whereby several people travel together in the same car in order to save money. The car is shared by the driver and one or more passengers. Employees use carpooling as a tool to get to their worksite. Carpooling is also called car-sharing, ride-sharing, and lift-sharing. It reduces the costs involved in repetitive or long distance driving by sharing the cars, rental charges, or by compensating the main car owners.

People working in the corporate world and IT sector have expressed a willingness to crapool: "We are all contributors to global warming and there is need to find a solution like carpooling. For example if a person is spending $120 a month by driving 15 miles per day, then he can save up to $80 by sharing the vehicle with two more persons commuting on the same route."

Benefits of carpooling:

Less stress commuting to and from work.

Saving money on gasoline, tolls, parking, and in vehicle wear.

Decreased traffic congestion.

Reduction in pollution and greenhouse gases.

Reduce dependency on foreign oil.

Expands the network of carpoolers by meeting new people.

Reduces need for parking space by employers.

It gives riders time for other activities such as reading, sleeping, working and socializing.

Promotes better health.

Users of the website can propose park and ride lots in their neighborhoods and send messages to others with similar commuting times and routes.

Steps to use the Web site

A user first registers his name, address, and contact information. Next, a user will choose how far he is willing to drive to a park and ride destinations. This information is important because it will allow users proposing park and ride lots to determine how many potential users there are for the site.

Then the user will be faced with a choice of destination. After entering his zip code, the user may be presented with a pull-down list of destinations. If the user does not find his general destination, he may enter a new destination. Destinations should be as general as possible. For example, if a user works at a shopping mall, rather than entering the name of the store where he works, he should enter the name of the mall. Similarly, those working in a downtown area may want to include the name of that area, and a user working in an office park may want to list the name of the office park rather than his particular employer. In this way, the largest number of potential matches will be found. The Web site will not work for users who input unique destinations.

Registered users may propose a park and ride lot in their neighborhoods (e.g., a church parking lot ? but only after obtaining permission to use the lot, of course) for others with similar commuting routes. The site will inform them of how many other users with similar commuting routes and schedules are potential users of the park and ride lot. The person proposing the lot may then communicate with those users to organize a park and ride lot. Happy carpooling!