Carpooling is gaining in popularity

By Tom Long  |  May 25, 2008

With the price of gasoline still soaring as we approach summer, more commuters are expecting to dive into the pool - the car pool, that is.

"It's less expensive, it's environmentally friendly, and it's fun, too," said Gail Coffey of Hollis, N.H., who has been sharing expenses and drive time on her 80-mile daily round trip to Concord, N.H., with two other drivers for the past few months.

Coffey found her fellow carpoolers through NH Rideshare, a free commuter matching service provided by the New Hampshire Department of Transportation. NH Rideshare applications are double what they were by this time last year. This April alone, 86 new individuals joined the program; 30 signed up in April 2007. There are now 1,240 commuters in the department's database. Commuters can sign up at rideshare.nh.gov.

"I tried to sign up a couple of years ago, but there were not that many people in the database and I couldn't find a match," said Coffey.

Last year she found a student who shared her ride, but that lasted only for the summer. A few months ago she tried again and found two people interested in sharing expenses and driving duties.

Coffey now drives her Toyota Corolla with 170,000 miles on the odometer three days a week, and the other members of the car pool each drive one day. "It's added a little more time to my 45-minute commute," she said, "but we split the cost of tolls and gasoline and it's reduced my expenses from $30 or $35 a week to about $5."

But Coffey said saving money isn't her only reason to share a ride. "It has substantially reduced my carbon footprint, and cuts down on pollution, too," she said.

Coffey is a grant writer and fund-raiser for the Nature Conservancy in Concord. She said the organization recently conducted a "carbon inventory" of its operation and found that its biggest impact on the environment was the employees' commutes.

But the benefits of car pooling are not just monetary and environmental. "It's nice to have people to talk to," she said, "particularly when the traffic backs up. It makes my commute less dreary."

Ride sharing is also becoming more attractive in the Bay State.

"We're seeing an increase in interest daily, both in car pooling and van pooling," a program in which a group of commuters lease, drive, and maintain a van, said Jennifer Walsh Carroll, a spokeswoman for MassRIDES, a state program that provides free assistance to commuters and employers interested in organizing car and van pools as well as exploring public transportation options.

Carroll said she is unable to determine how many new commuters have signed up with the registry because of skyrocketing gasoline prices, but she said there is plenty of incentive.

According to figures compiled by MassRIDES, the average Massachusetts household spends more on transportation - 15 percent of its income - than on food. Of the 3 million people who commute in Massachusetts each day, 74 percent of them drive alone.

Carroll said there are now more than 13,000 commuters registered on the MassRIDES website, commute.com.

As part of ongoing bridge construction, a temporary off-ramp has been created for Exit 1 southbound on Interstate 93 in Salem, N.H. The traffic shift will allow construction to continue on a new interchange in which seven bridges will be replaced with three in anticipation of the widening of the highway. The temporary ramp is expected to be in operation until November.

You better make sure the kids are buckled up if you're heading for Hudson, N.H. The Hudson Police Department will conduct special patrols through the end of the month to make sure children are properly fastened in their safety belts. The stepped-up inspections are sponsored by the New Hampshire Highway Safety Agency.

New Hampshire law requires that all children up to age 6 and a height of 55 inches be restrained and properly secured in an approved child passenger-safety seat and that everyone up to age 18 uses a seat belt.

Starts & Stops appears every other Sunday in Globe Northwest. Transportation comments and questions may be sent to starts@globe.com.