Car Pooling

In the recent time of the ever ending gas prices, my husband started riding back and forth to work with a buddy of his that lives here in our town and works at the same place he does. They take turns driving one drives one week the other drives the next. That has helped our budget quite well going from $100 to $200 per week on gas for both our vehicles to around $125 for two weeks, some month are a little more depending on how much driving I have to do through the month. If you have the chance to do it, it will save you a bunch. The other pluses are to our environment, decongests our road ways, and wear and tear on your cars.

This was taken from the "Green Living Tips" website: (colored)

According to a recent US study, "Commuting in America":

- U.S. drivers wasted 4.2 billion hours sitting in traffic in 2005
- Traffic delays chewed through 2.9 billion gallons of fuel
- In Los Angeles, the average driver wastes 72 hours per year going nowhere.

That makes you think a little about why shouldn't we car pool when we can. I think of this and see the Garfield poster that says "WELL DUH!!!!!" lol.

According to the American Automobile Association, it costs an average of 26.2 cents per mile to drive a car; and that's just gas and wear and tear combined.

According to the SightLine Insitute (single passenger statistics):

- A small car emits around .59 pounds of carbon dioxide per mile
- A medium car emits around 1.1 pounds of carbon dioxide per mile
- An SUV/4 wheel emits around 1.57 pounds of carbon dioxide per mile

Some of these stats just astonish me and make me wonder why the American public doesn't suck it up and either:

1. Car pool with other co-workers

2. Ride the bus or train, some cities are even going as far as to find alternative fuels to power these types of transportation to help their carbon footprint kudos to those cities.

3. Ride a bike or walk if you don't live that far from work.

4. Telecommuting is a popular new way to work, you work for the same company but from home only having to got to the office once or maybe twice a week or not at all.

5. Some companies are finding that a 4 day work week helps their employee's by giving them 10 hour days or 4 days and still get paid for 5 or 40 hour work weeks. Cheaper for the worker and the employers say that job productivity is much better.

I actually have a friend that telecommutes (only because he had to hold a job and made a big boo boo and lost his license due to a DUI, yes he learned his lesson too.) he loves the fact that he can work from anywhere in his house, be in his pj's, and do pretty much anything he wants while working all in the privacy of his home. His pocketbook loves it too, because his job is like 50 miles from his house.

A friend of mine sent me a email a few weeks back that had tips to help you get what you pay for at the gas pumps. The best times to fill up and what to watch for with scams. Which most of these tips make a lot of sense I will post that email here and another that I think is important to let you know about later this afternoon.

There are all kinds of services that can hook you up with the right car poolers just Google car pool town, ride share, or lift share. Good luck in your search ;) if you intend to conduct one. Well its off to find that email have a great day all.

I do appologize for the different fonts it went all haywire on me when I went to italisize something UGH!!! Oh well I guess this just proves it to be a learning curve for me