Detroiters do not Carpool

[James]

So the economy is horrible, Detroit is hurting, and gas prices are headed back up. Yet why do many of us not carpool to work? I know I do four days a week. It saves quite a bit of money in a year if you are spending half as much on gas on a weekly basis.

According to oned.org out of 54 major metropolitan areas studied, Detroit ranked 50 for the percentage of people who carpool to work.

Lets do the math, say you drive 15 miles to work, 30 miles total per day, five times a week. That is 150 miles per week. Say you car gets a generous 25mpg, that is 6 gallons of gas per week just to get you to and from work. Multiply that by 52 weeks per year. This equals 312 gallons of gas per year. Current prices are $2.75/gallon. That means that driving to work alone, you spend $858 on gas per year.

Now think what you can save if you carpool with one person and only drive half of the days to work. You could save $429 per year.

That is a lot of extra spending money, or money for living expenses! The numbers kind of speak for themselves.
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[artds]

I prefer not having someone else in my car in the morning. That's worth the extra $1.17 per day cost to me.

[James]

Fair enough, and I agree, it takes a getting used to. For me at least, the cost savings and extra money for my family is worth it.

[MCP-001]

I would also chalk it up to people working on different schedules.

Kind of hard to carpool, when your friends are already at work or still in bed.

[James]

Of course, it wont always work for everyone, you have to basically luck out and live close to someone who works at the same company or at least close to where you work and is on the same schedule. However, I would put money on the fact that many of us have neighbors who work close to us and at the same times.

[milesdriven]

I used to carpool when I lived in Mt. Clemens and worked in Southfield, but now I live in Toledo and work in six different states, so it is not possible.

[Johnnny5]

The MDOT carpooling lots seem to be a lot busier than a few years ago. When gas was around $4 the lot located near my home banned large trucks from parking in the lot due to a lack of space.

[East Detroit]

Blame flexible hours.

[EastsideAl]

Work sites in this area are so decentralized, thanks to rampant suburbanization, the building of offices and corporate campuses all over the map, the emptying out of downtown, and the historical spreading out of our industries, that its hard to get a group together that's all going in the same direction.

[EastsideAl]

And most places people work around here, except for downtown, it costs them nothing to park. And even there the cost is lower than in most other large cities. So that removes one of the major incentives to carpool. It's not like people here are going to Manhattan or the Loop or even downtown L.A.

[kryptonite]

Carpooling is inconvenient and unrealistic in most urban areas. What if a person you ride with is not dependable and late, that effects when your carpool group and when you all end up at work. Plus what if you have to wait around while someone in the carpool has to work late on any given day?

And sick days or unplanned personal days? If you are in a carpool you have more calls to make than just your employer.

personally there is hardly a person within a couple of miles of my home that works where I work and do they even start at the same time??

And forget any form of public transportation from where I live to where I work, there is no such thing.

I'll stick to driving myself to work and pay the extra cost.

My past carpooling experiences were pretty good but nowadays with flex schedules and variable work days carpooling is a thing of the past pretty much.

[Ray1936]

In my first six years on the DPD -- working at the Vernor precinct station -- I lived near Southfield and Eight Mile. We had a total of six guys in our car pool. Usually, one or two of them were off. Sometimes it got a bit crowded, but nickles were tough in those days and it saved everyone money. We would make up a monthly schedule and I don't ever remember someone screwing it up. I think we all lived in that square mile of Southfield to Greenfield, Seven mile to Eight mile, so it was no big thing making the rounds to start or finish the day. On the afternoon shift, when we got off work at midnight, one of the guys usually came up with a cold six-pack which was a nice finish to the night.

Hey. We're talking 1960 prices when gas was two bits a gallon. So were cigarettes a pack. But we only took home, I dunno, maybe $160 every two weeks. Things were tight, and saving that gas was a great help.

Later on, I transferred to the Motorcycle Traffic Bureau. We took our bikes home from our location at 2650 E. Jefferson, and that was a godsend, also. Only requirement was we had to write tickets going "to an from" work. No biggie.

[Hamtragedy]

I thought the HOV lanes on Michigan were going to inspire people to carpool!!

[DetroitScooter]

It's hard to carpool on a scooter!

[Mackinaw]

Not carpooling when you could carpool, or not taking transit when it is readily available, may be more desirable to the average person [[e.g., as Artds says, it provides sufficient utility to outweigh the cost benefits of carpooling) and may save you a few minutes here and there for not having to wait for your friend or for your bus, but that doesn't mean it isn't irresponsible.

All of us socially responsible people will just have to inhale more fumes produced by single-rider vehicles on the road as we walk to work. Happens to me everyday. The nice guy always loses.

[Zacha341]

I'm selfish I guess , I do community service work, working with people all day, and I just prefer to be alone in my small car! Sadly, I can barely wake myself up early enough to get to work in the wee hours I must go... Maybe it is something in the future..........

[Trainman]

Not carpooling when you could carpool, or not taking transit when it is readily available, may be more desirable to the average person [[e.g., as Artds says, it provides sufficient utility to outweigh the cost benefits of carpooling) and may save you a few minutes here and there for not having to wait for your friend or for your bus, but that doesn't mean it isn't irresponsible.

All of us socially responsible people will just have to inhale more fumes produced by single-rider vehicles on the road as we walk to work. Happens to me everyday. The nice guy always loses.

The nice guy will always lose if the SMART Property Tax Renewal is not defeated next August 2010 with a majority vote of NO in all three counties of Wayne, Oakland and Macomb

This renewal is a regressive tax shift that will give the green light in 2011 for the construction of $2 Billion of NEW freeway lanes in Detroit and Oakland County.

Only your vote of NO can or will work to restore all state and federal mass transit funds and stop the senseless destruction of what the monster freeway projects will do. They were approved by the federal government despite strong public protests.

Without your vote of NO next August 2010, it will be too late to stop the massive freeway building in Detroit without first protecting existing public bus service and community transit.

[Retroit]

Could you imagine carpooling with Trainman every day?

[EMG]

If Trainman got his way there would be no need at all for the "monster" freeways, because EVERYBODY would be "a responsible person," riding mass transit instead of owning a car! Just think what a wonderful thing that would be for Detroit...oh, wait a minute....

[mwilbert]

Carpooling saves a lot more than the cost of gas; operating costs for a car are several times the cost of gas. And if you carpool regularly, you may be able to reduce the number of cars you own, which is a fairly large saving.

That said, the very diffuse commuting pattern in Metro Detroit makes carpooling pretty difficult; it isn't surprising it isn't very common. It will probably only become more common if it gets harder for people to afford driving alone.

[gazhekwe]

When I worked in Lansing, I carpooled with a total of eight people. We'd meet at OCC-Orchard Ridge. Usually we had one carful every morning, five or six people that is. We each drove for one day a week. As long as I had a job that I could schedule, that worked well. None of us worked at the same building, but the State buildings are pretty close together. We'd make it to work in weather so bad the local employees would stay home. Well, my job changed to a management level and then I couldn't control my hours. Meetings would last til 8 pm or later sometimes, so I had to drop out of the carpool and go by myself. I really missed that carpool.

[James]

You are all right, it really depends on your situation. When it works, it works out really nicely, at least for me! Not only is it cheaper, but it also helps out the environment which is of course a big deal right now.

[Meddle]

I lived on the far westside and worked downtown. I never knew for sure if I was going to be at the office all day or if I was going to have to go somewhere else and not get back. Wouldn't work to carpool and leave someone downtown to find another way home.