On Demand
Going Solo
Monday, December 08, 2008
Linda Rhine, transportation consultant and San Fransisco Bay Area carpooler discusses why carpooling works in the Bay Area and Sam Schwartz, president of Sam Schwartz Engineering, a traffic planning and engineering firm and Gridlock Sam, columnist for the Daily News, talks about why it doesn't seem to work in NYC.
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Car pooling in NYC what are you crazy?
Do you want to end up in the East River?
it's an east coast - west coast thing. there's more granola types in Berkeley and the SF suburbs. don't you remember the South Park episode where one family buys a hybrid car, gets all preachy about the environment, and moves to San Francisco, where there's a high level of "smugness"?
Here in California, we have carpool lanes on freeways, so you can bypass the traffic.
I carpool to NJ from NYC; it makes the commute pleasant. Set a schedule and basic ground rules, stick with them, and try to include considerate reasonable people.
I would carpool in a cab. I would not want to be at the mercy of anyone else's driving. Better yet, carpool in a car-service. They are great drivers and need more customers since the investment banker biz is down.
If the 'L' train continues as it has lately, then I'd consider carpooling. It couldn't be any slower...
Carpooling is great! The trip goes faster (especially if you have a lead foot in the car) and it cuts down on expenses and wear and tear on cars. We carpool from NYC to NJ, and the schedule avoids parking issues. All cars are parked in NJ at night except the driver's, who drives the evening of one day and the AM of the next. So that person has to find parking but no one else.
I have been working on this problem with a colleague at SUNY Purchase. We are both New Media professors and have decided to build a web and mobile phone application to make ride sharing easy and fun.
To reduce the "risk factor" that the previous poster from Inwood raises, we decided to make our app workplace or campus specific. This way you are only arranging rides with people in your immediate community and building off of already existing trust networks. If you want to open your network to other workplaces/campuses, then you will can opt for that as well.
Right now we are piloting the application, called Purpool, at Purchase College and Pepsico headquarters (also in Purchase, NY). We hope to expand and open it up to many more in the near future.
Here is more info: www.purpool.com
I started car pooling with a colleague who lives nearby 2 to 3 days a week while gas was at its peak.
I feel that rather than count on the government to address environmental issues, there are a lot of small steps we can take to contribute to solutions and save money as well.
I also write about ways to be 'practically green' every Tuesday in 'Green Day' http://www.sergetheconcierge.com/green_day/ on 'Serge the Concierge'
Serge
'The French Guy from New Jersey'
i carpool daily with a mom and her child to our nursery school. there are some of those granola types here in nyc.
Ahh a trick question... Sweet. NYC folks don't carpool because we don't own cars! 54% of NYCrs do not own cars -- if you live on the Isalnd of Manhattan - you don't own a car - 77% of folks on Manhattan do not own cars.
ZipCar is great, and the subway is great.
I carpool with a co-worker who lives near me. We have the opposite commute out of the city up to Rockland County. We started when the gas prices and the bridge tolls went up. It has worked out well except I used to hit the gym on the way to work, and now have not made it there over the last few months.
I carpooled to Queens from Manhattan for five years. I picked up a fellow teacher at 6:50am as she got out of the train on 125th and Lex. We formed a lasting friendship and I really enjoyed having the company. Making the reverse commute was, of course, much more pleasant.
No onw talks about the need similar schedules. Everyone seems to differ by a range of a couple of hours. As busy as I am do I show up a couple of hours early just to go green or save on gas?
If anybody has noticed, Europeans don't have carpool lanes either. The main reason is that New York and many other European systems have functional mass transit networks that reduce the need for carpooling along with a large functional central business district area.
They have what your guest calls casual carpooling in DC, there its call slugging, and the casuals meet up at what is called slug-lines.
This is done to qualify for HOV+3 lanes
If ppl don't carpool, I'll bet it's more b/c of social considerations than it is about being green. We all want to be green, but New Yorkers are stubborn and want things done their own way, from driving styles to the actual roads of getting somewhere. (People get preachy about the best way to get somewhere on the subway!) Maybe west coasters are just more tolerant of their fellow traveling companions.
SFOcan's should not feel "progressive" about using cars. People there drive 4 or 5 blocks to the grocery store instead of walking. I walked everywhere around SFO and I was considered something of a phenomenon or oddity by the natives. Walking around that city, besides fisherman's wharf , I rarely saw any one else walking. NYkrs use their plain old feet to get around MUCH more than west coast people. Too near Silicon Valley, I guess feet are too low tech for them.
Can New Yorkers really stand each other for so long to endure a carpool? Good luck with that.
San Franciscans, on the other hand, are much more mellow.
having lived in both SF and NYC their are 2 major differences. While the Bay Area embraces virtually ALL progressive and modern ideas- NYC seems to be simultaniously progressive and stuck in idealogy that is 50 years old. The recycling program is a good example.
I do car pool - although it is a reverse commute (travel to Newark three times a week). With three or more people in my car (sometimes I get 5) using my EZ-Pass turns the GW Bridge from $8 to $2.00. With my riders pitching in turns gas and tolls from $150 a month to about $20 not to mention my carbon foot print.
I think a big reason casual carpooling wouldn't work is the weather. New York's weather is much more inclement than San Francisco's. If it's 80+ degrees and humid (August, anyone?) or 30- degrees and windy (today, anyone?) you're not going to want to wait in a centralized location for a ride.
Marrisa- SF people are NOT more laid back. They have their own brand of upity-tightness.
I'm a blogger in Katonah and last week wrote about one of the iphone aps for carpooling. I just heard one of your callers bring up the issue of no parking for carpoolers. And if we park at the train station it might take away train traffic.
I hope to start a beta program in our area for carpooling. Hoping people can get picked up in downtown South Salem, Bedford Village, Katonah or Bedford Hills, having walked there from the village, or gotten dropped off by a family member. We'll see. Here's the link to the blog: www.KatonahGreen.com
avego.com is a system for carpoolers, it allows the flexibility of "casual carpooling" (as in SF) and some of the security and user ratings of systems like e-bay, etc. Also provides some of the financial sharing that Janette, above, mentioned...
coming soon to an iphone near you!
:-)
Sean
www.avego.com
The issue I see in NYC is that lot of people don't go "home-office-home"...they stop off at the gym or pick-up/drop-off kids or have to attend evening events...fundraisers, panel discussions etc. It's hard to coordinate all that with other people.
In my professional circle every time I suggest carpooling people look at me like I have two heads. Our colleagues from NJ are great about it, but Brooklyn? Fuggettaboutit
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