Title: Flexible Carpooling: Exploratory Study
Publication Information: UC Davis Energy Efficiency Center
Author(s): Diana M. Dorinson, Deanna Gay, Paul Minett, Susan Shaheen
Document Date: Sept 2009
Number of Pages: 83
Price: $0
Abstract:
Energy consumption could be reduced if more people shared rides rather than driving alone yet carpooling represents a small proportion of all potential carpoolers. Prior research has found that many who might carpool were concerned about reduced flexibility with carpooling. If flexibility is one of the barriers how could carpooling be organized to be more flexible? In Northern Virginia a flexible system has evolved where there are 3,500 single-use carpools per day. In another example there are 3,000 single-use carpools per day in a system in San Francisco. In both cases riders stand at the equivalent of a taxi stand for carpoolers and there is no requirement for pre-arrangement to create the carpool. Would-be drive-alone drivers pick up riders and qualify to use the high occupancy vehicle (HOV3+, driver plus at least two passengers) lane helping all the traffic flow a little more freely. These two systems are estimated to save almost three million gallons of gasoline per year because of the impact they have on the rest of the traffic.
The logical flow of the paper is to describe flexible carpooling,
explore the economics at a personal level and determine the likely use
by individuals, explore the economics at a route level to determine
societal benefits, and finally explore the validity of institutional
barriers that might be raised.
Keywords: carpooling, energy efficiency