Increased interest in car pooling

With all of the expenses that come from driving a vehicle such as fuel costs and parking charges, commuters are now attempting to try other forms of transport - car pooling, (See Image 1).

Image 1: An example of work mates car pooling
Source: Google Images 2011

This increased interest has led to the establishment of projects that further encourage people to use this more sustainable form of transport. Auckland International Airport has a car pooling scheme which is dominated by a website “that decides who people travel with, how often they carpool and lets them know who lives nearby to find a good carpooling buddy,” (Auckland Transport 2011). This scheme offers numerous opportunities for commuters and can provide a number of benefits including travel costs being reduced and colleagues being able to interact with each other. Using car pooling is also a more efficient mode of transport and ensures that less cars are on the road, therefore being good for the environment. Besides these benefits that car pooling already brings, Auckland Transport also runs competitions to incentivise Airport staff. I never realized such schemes existed within Auckland. It was only after researching for this blog that I discovered this and I am impressed. I believe that this car pooling scheme has major potential and should be carried out in other businesses to encourage them too to use more efficient modes of transport like car-pooling. Not just within businesses, but even students could try similar schemes and car pool with their class mates to school or university.  Essentially, this will provide many benefits for Aucklanders.