With gas prices pretty firmly stuck around the $3 mark in many places, and families facing tighter schedules and tougher commutes all the time, carpooling is an attractive — and green – option. The more people you carry, the more efficient that gas you burn becomes. And if you're driving a big status-symbol vehicle anyway, why not put all that space to good use?
A new website offers parents the chance to coordinate carpools with each other based on each driver's individual needs and create a driving schedule based on that. It works somewhat similarly to a social networking site in that you enter your kid's activities and school schedules, and then invite families you know to join you and set up a carpool schedule. Dividetheride.com then emails the schedule to the entire group and sends reminders via text message and email. Let's just say this would have come in handy during my carpooling days, when one dad stranded us repeatedly because he forgot.
The Divide The Ride homepage allows drivers to see an approximate estimate of miles saved, rides shared and gallons of gasoline saved in a year, as well.
When I was a kid, we carpooled everywhere, mostly to save our parents some sanity instead of saving gas or cutting pollution. There were several kids from our neighborhood heading to the schools we attended, and it just made sense. Most of the time it worked well, except for the Bitch Patrol I got stuck with in high school.
It teaches the importance of being on time and responsible to other people, and reinforces organizational skills.
And little did we know at the time, we were all earth-friendly too.
