$4/gallon gas stings

With gas at $4 a gallon, reporters are calling me to get another angle for their stories on the cost of gas.
They all want to know, "Has $4/gallon gas made more people carpool?"
The answer is YES, especially people who have "super commutes" -- live more than 30 miles from work -- and drive an 8-cylinder gas-hog. They are feeling the pain the sharpest. Most people who don't live so close to the edge of their budgets, are driving blithely along -- and paying the price.
People are loathe to give up the supreme convenience of driving alone -- until the dent in their wallet forces them to make tradeoffs in their lifestyle.
Carpooling requires effort -- to find someone who you like to share the personal space of your car, to find someone who works your schedule and works near you. They don't have to live near you, just work near you. You can easily drive to a meeting place that's on the way to work. When you get to work, you don't want to have to make a loop dropping off people.

For example, my best carpool partner ever, Pam, drives 15 minutes to meet me at a traffic rotary. We don't live that close to each other, but I'm not out of her way. She has many other great characteristics.

1. We work the same hours. Exactly. This is probably the most important thing.
If you hate your carpool partner's personality, the carpool will FAIL! No amount of money saved is worth suffering with a harsh carpooler. NONE! And I'm pretty frugal.
2. Pam is a good listener and has a good sense of humor.
3. Pam is on time. This is critical. It is annoying to wait for people.
4. I live on her way to work, so we don't go out of our way.
5. We work in buildings one-quarter-mile away from each other. That makes it simple.
6. Pam communicates, in advance, whether or not she can carpool on a given day.

Sadly, Pam telecommutes most of the time, so we only drive together a few days a month. She hopes to telecommute 100% of the time. This is the transient nature of carpooling. You get something good, and it doesn't last -- for many reasons.

My office is at an intersection where more than 9,000 people work. You'd think I could find some other ideal carpool partners. There are tools available - a free, secure online database to find carpool partners that the 9,000 people could use, but we have been conditioned by society and the automakers to believe we have the right to pollute the earth. So I have some other carpool partners who are pretty good.

Elaine drives a Prius, but she just got promoted to manager and likes to work later than I do. That's a problem. I've had a number of early starts in June to coordinate bike-to-work events, as well as after-work events, so those put a pothole in carpooling plans this month.

It's best to have multiple good carpool partners, but it takes effort. I think I'll go browse my free carpool matching service right now to see if I can find someone else. There has been an upswing in the number of people signing up.