I have really wondered why more people do not carpool. They are basically driving alone in their cars from point A to point B and back, five times a week, 240 times a year. For the sake of carpooling, the area around points A and B could be a radius of five miles. It is apparent that these drivers are not motivated by saving money, if two people carpool, they can save 50 percent and time, decrease travel time by 25 percent, but people are not motivated to reduce pollution. So what drives these people?
Based on above, I did an unscientific experiment. I observed people going to restaurants for lunch. I noticed that about 90 percent of the time people carpooled. So I asked myself why and it became obvious. Parking at these restaurants is very restricted at this time. It follows that the fear of not getting a parking spot makes people carpool.
Solution to increasing carpool participation is clear. The state needs to mandate that every employer of, let’s say for the sake of argument, 30 people must designate that 30 percent of the parking spaces be carpool only. These carpool parking spaces could be treated just like handicap parking and require a tag you hang in the vehicle while parked. There would be a fine just like for handicap parking. There would be patrol to catch and ticket violators. Also, to assure participation, these carpool parking spaces could be right near the entrance of the work place. The fear of not being able to find a parking spot near the door at work would then motivate these drivers to carpool.
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Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.