What's a vanpool, Mommy? Watch the video, sweetie

The spike in gas prices has brought carpooling from backstage and into the spotlight. All of a sudden, we humble carpoolers are news, and are featured on the news and newspapers. Our simple, collaborative, green journey to work that has gone unnoticed for decades, has reached prime time.


Some carpools evolve into a vanpool -- in which a group of 7-15 people who live and work near each other lease a van and commute together. They commit to ride it monthly, designate volunteer drivers [some of whom ride free] and create an account to buy gas.


It's like a private, mobile, self-driven mini-bus that takes scores of cars off the road. I call it THE solution to "suburban mobility," also known as a suburb-to-suburb commute.


In Boston, only 25 percent of the daily commute is INTO downtown Boston, yet the lion's share of public transit is geared towards that journey. The other 75 percent -- which is suburb-to-suburb -- stays backstage.


My 26-mile daily commute is suburb-to-suburb. I start on back roads, spend 13 miles on the interstate, and finish on a four-lane state road. Because of the low volume of people who come this route, bus service does not make sense, BUT a vanpool would. And a vanpool is faster and more efficient than a bus.

However, a vanpool requires commitment, collaboration, drivers and riders. Riding transit or carpooling are a lot simpler. But vanpools save more money and vehicular wear-and-tear. They're practical on commutes LONGER than 20 miles.

My favorite quote of the vanpooler interviewed for this news report on a Detroit TV station http://www.clickondetroit.com/video/17259230/index.html is the reason why he likes vanpooling: "I get free consultants on technology and the law," referring to fellow vanpoolers' expertise.

The bonus of vanpooling or carpooling is the entertainment, education, laughter, consulting and friendship of fellow riders. You have to carpool or vanpool to experience it.