http://www.care2.com/greenliving/start-a-carpool-how-to.html
How to Start a Carpool
By the Care2 staff.
Just think: Instead of four cars belching pollution on the roadways, you could share one and reduce your carbon footprint dramatically. But how do you get started? Here are the easy steps for starting a carpool and reduce your negative impact on the environment:
In the workplace
1. Send out a group email or put up a notice at work; you may be surprised how many people live near enough to you that they would be willing to carpool.
2. Come up with a schedule and a route that feels workable, figure out the timing (always allow some extra time for traffic jams and other eventualities), and try it. Have a back-up plan in case the designated driver gets sick.
3. Try a three-warning whistle-blowing system for habitual latecomers who make the whole car late for work: three strikes and you’re out of the pool.
Grocery trips
These can be carpooled, too. Talk to your neighbors and organize a cooperative shopping day. If you’re a sociable type, it makes shopping a lot more fun.
Supporting local farms
If you have a local farm that sells fresh produce, pooling trips to pick it up can make it a real celebration rather than a chore.
Clothes shopping
This can be especially helpful if you have children. Figure out where you want to go (choose thrift shops if you really want to reduce your impact on the environment!) pack everybody into one vehicle, and go to town!
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6 comments
add your comment »Just shared your article on my FB. Great ideas, thanks!
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For this reason we have created this free carpool search service - now in Australia only, but we will welcome people from other countries/continents who'd like to run a clone of the website in their area.
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Car pooling in a carbon fueled car is one way to reduce the carbon load on the planet.. But, what if we...
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There is an app on Facebook that let's you not only see your immediate neighbors and tag that you want to carpool, but you can also narrow it down by your friends or people who work at your company. Check it out:
Your Neighbors
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There's a great website called GishiGo that does a lot the "free and anonymous" social networks avoid. It helps people exchange identity using PayPal. And it creates a papertrail and bunch of other good stuff. I use it all the time. And I use the social networks like Craigslist and Kijiji and MySpace. The more people who see my GishiGo rideshare post the more likely I will have successful carpool. And it helps me build confidence. That's the real issue. Applaud the guys who are using Facebook account to help with the confidence issue. GishiGo.com seems really good to me. There are a bunch of other websites, but this GishiGo is very powerful network design and only one that is so convenient to me. No registration. Open to anyone who isn't fearful of exchanging their identity (basically filtering out the "need anonymous" people, which is what I want in ridesharing).
http://www.GishiGo.com
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Use Facebook Carpool: http://apps.facebook.com/carpool
I really like it because you can view someone's profile before sharing a ride. It also uses google maps to find the closest match.
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Facebook account: