Capable and carless

My son Ian, 24, is a free spirit. He graduated from college in 2007. Since then, he has worked on an organic farm and in my husband's business, Red Oak Renovations. He is en route as we speak to the Bahamas for four months to live simply by the ocean and surf until spring, when he will likely return here for a few months until it's planting season.

What sets Ian apart from most of his friends: he owns a sailboat -- but not a car or a house or condominium. David, who invited him down to the Bahamas last winter, inherited an extra 24-foot sailboat from a friend who died. David gave the boat to Ian because he likes Ian.

Like his surfboard, Ian's sailboat has zero carbon emissions.

Ian manages without a car even though it's inconvenient and unpredictable. He has to ask others for rides and to borrow their car. Even though it's a hassle to consider him when making plans for my car -- which I share with my husband -- I'm glad he hasn't caved in yet and bought a car. I'm willing to help him out so he can remain car-less for now.

Selfishly, the car would be parked in my driveway for the four months while he's in the Bahamas. So I'm grateful.

There are benefits. He has more money to save for other things. He sees his friends more often because he depends on them for rides to get places. He is not encumbered by the hassle of owning a car. If he had a car payment, he might not be as free to take off for the Bahamas for the winter.

I loaned him a copy of "How to Live Well without a Car," by Chris Balish.

"At first I thought I didn't need it," Ian said. "But when I read it, it reinforced my decision and gave me new ideas on how I manage without a car."

Most of the book is geared towards tips for car-free urban dwellers. We live in a small town in Central Massachusetts, 2 miles from the small shopping area and commuter rail to Boston. It's not an ideal place to live without a car.

Ian proves that it is possible to avoid car ownership. Ian demonstrates how much fun it is to opt for sailboat ownership over car ownership, and that it's possible.

When he stopped by Sonus, where his brother works as a computer engineer to drop off a bit of holiday cheer [using my car], the other engineers said, "Get out of here fast before we get too jealous that you're headed for the Bahamas."

The biggest ad campaign in the history of the universe

On my last day of work as a paid carpool promoter for Fortune 500 companies in a crowded corridor, Dustin gave me a new perspective to my three years of toiling.

"You know Susan, we're fighting against the biggest advertising campaign in the history of the world -- the automotive industry." Dustin is a peer in the transportation demand management industry -- who knew there was such a thing?

Thank you Dustin, for explaining why people don't want to give up their comfortable, private, customized, convenient, status symbols to drive with other people, take public transit, or, [you can laugh here - most people do] bike to work.

EVERY CHANNEL of the media reinforces the freedom, classiness, speed, luxury and beauty of personal car ownership.

The solution to $4/gallon gas? Make 4-cylinder cars that are lighter and get higher gas mileage.

Dustin showed me that something in our culture must change if we are to change our driving habits. The change might be $4/gas, gridlocked roads, cleaner vehicles, government restrictions on how much we can drive, or a mass realization that our exhaust is melting down the planet.

The soggy permafrost in Alaska is just too far away from our backyard, our way to work, our livelihood, to register on our radar.

We don't believe one person can make a difference.

One person alone cannot make a difference, in the same way one soldier on a battlefield, one football player on a playing field, one civil rights leader standing alone at the Lincoln Memorial is helpless alone.

Making different choices our energy use will only happen by influencing the silent majority to change, and hit the magical tipping point.

Sadly, that zenith is obscured by a plethora of ads for cars and trucks, and a contagious thirst across the globe for carbon-polluting personal vehicles.

When will we ever learn?

The willingness factor

Today, I connected two different people with two different carpool possibilities.

My mother, a Roosevelt Democrat, used to say, "Democracy depends on the willingness of its participants." God rest her soul and her soapbox [she had some strong opinions!], mom's wisdom is true about democracy and carpooling.

Carpooling depends on the willingness of its participants. Without participants, there is no carpooling.

MOST -- two-thirds or more -- of carpools are founded by people who already know each other. Carpool connections are also made second-hand, through someone like me, who-knows-someone-who-lives-near-you.

We Americans have a cultural norm of the convenience of driving alone. Overcoming that requires attention, desire and sometimes outside influences.

Willingness is key.

Bette is funny

Bette caught a ride in with me today again and is hoping for a lift home from someone else. Because she's blind, she has few options when commuting from suburb-to-suburb.

I don't mind driving her to work when her regular carpooler is on vacation. Bette gives me a few bucks for gas and more importantly, she lets me set the commuting hours.

And Bette is funny.

Before she gets into my silver Camry, she waits for me to call her name. Once while waiting for a ride, someone pulled up in a grey car. She got into the guy's car and buckled in.

The man asked politely, "Well, hello! Do I know you?"

Since then, Bette waits for confirmation before plunking down.

Bette likes gambling and because of the low lighting at casinos has occasionally sat on someone's lap by mistake.

She says that makes her a lap dancer.

Too bad I have to drive home alone tonight because of a business dinner.

Bette

Tomorrow I'll pick up Bette at McDonald's and drive her to work. She lives about 15 minutes northwest of me. Without help from an able-bodied driver, Betty would not be able to work because she has limited vision and can't drive

If Bette lived in a more urban area, she would have more options. Now she depends on the kindness of friends. Bette will pay me a few bucks for gas. More importantly, she will regale me all the way to work and home again.

The 15 minutes of sitting in Route 9 traffic to go 5 miles will fly by as Bette amuses me with stories about her life, her pets, her hobbies. Carpooling has introduced me to people I never would have met.

Carpoolers find solutions and go the extra mile

Yesterday, Elaine - my carpool partner - and I both drove in alone because she had an after-work dinner planned.

After the dinner got cancelled, she emailed me and offered me a ride home, event though it meant driving me home- which is 4 miles north of her house. This morning, I walked a mile to meet Elaine and Bette at "the rotary" for a ride to work. My car spent the night at work and I'll drive myself and Bette home tonight.

Yes, I saved the gas and wear-and-tear on my car, and I got to spend time with Elaine, who has become a friend. We cut down on congestion [and traffic was backed up last night on Route 9] and air pollution.

Most people only think about solving big problems like congestion and air pollution in terms of "What's in it for me?" Many people refuse to sacrifice personal convenience for carpooling. Driving alone is THE most convenient way to get around -- as long as there's not too much congestion and the air is still clean enough to breathe.

Sadly, most people delay changing until we feel PAIN.
The pain can be:
Financial -- $4/gallon gas,
Time -- sitting in traffic -- build more HOV lanes to reward carpoolers,
or Environmental -- which takes decades to accumulate.

In the meantime, carpoolers get many rewards --
Financial -- Carpoolers save money.
Time -- Carpoolers can sleep or read when someone else drives.
Environmental -- Carpoolers have a clean conscience. Very clean and low-carbon.

And there's the friendship factor. There are a dozen reasons for carpools to fall apart, the prime one being: a carpool will only work if you don't like your carpool partner. Otherwise, forget it!

It really helps to live and work near each other and to work the same hours.
Liking each other can be the lubricant to work out many other inconveniences.
When you like someone, you call and offer a ride all the way home so you can pay her back for the ride she gave you earlier in the week.

Post-Labor Day Congestion and a solution

Now that vacation season is over everyone is back at work, congestion is worse than ever. It takes me 15 minutes to go a measely 5 miles because the four-lane divided road was not designed for such high volume. Each traffic light causes a backup.

When people vacationed this summer, volume was down by 20 percent, and congestion minimized. On Fridays, I flew into work, so people were either working from home or not working.

We can maintain that fast-track to work if everyone carpooled, bike, took the bus or worked from home just ONE DAY per week. Merely reducing the volume of traffic on the road by 20 or 25 percent eases congestion, not to mention the impact on air quality because of fewer vehicles and less idling.

We are like car-zombies. We have structured our whole lives around driving alone in a customized vehicle that reflects our status [fact, fiction or sacrifice], income, identity [minivan or motorcycle] pizazz, or functionality.

We don't think about this behavior any more. We put our children in battery-operated "cute" vehicles so they can hold their sippy cups while they are propelled along and can grow their own spare tire around the middle as soon as possible.

What will it take for us to wake up? $4/gallon gas was like waking up in a nightmare at 4 am. Unfortunately, we have to suffer to motivate us to change.

Carpool Connection -- the hidden reward of sharing rides

Elaine and I carpooled together today for the first time in several weeks. Our schedules had not overlapped, so we had a lot to catch up on.

She might need a ride later on today to catch public transit to the airport, which I'm more than happy to provide. Of course, I have my own self-interest at heart. I may ask her to pick me up at the repair shop where my car will be serviced for the day, or to give me a ride all the way home because I didn't have my car at all that day. [I usually drive to her house because she's on my way to work.]

Forget the selfishness, we have become friends, and friends do favors for friends. There is the unspoken expectation that friends trade favors. Even if she NEVER pays me back or I stay in the black ink of our "favor bank," that's fine too. I'm happy to help her out.

The ONLY way carpools last is when the carpoolers like each other, or, at the very least, can stand each other. I've had to stop carpooling with people who are too loud, too late or too self-centered. They are far outnumbered by the carpool partners I've met and shared life stories with, laughed and keep in touch with.

Non-carpoolers don't understand the silver interiors that come with the best fellow carpoolers. You have to experience it to become a believer. To carpool, you take a risk that you might have to break up -- because it's a bad match, or your job situation changes. Carpooling is fluid and constantly changing.

Too much of a good thing?

One of my clients, the headquarters of a multinational corporation, has a problem. Their carpooling program is TOO successful.

They have 20 acres of parking for 3,000 employees, several hundred registered carpoolers and about 100 carpool-only spaces, in prime territory -- adjacent to the building.

Some employees start carpooling to qualify for the prime parking spaces, because they don't like to hike 10 minutes from the hinterlands.

The problem: a shortage of carpooling spaces. To incorporate more spaces would require a re-thinking of the available resources, and possibly investing of technology and labor to manage restricted parking.

The big picture is that carpooling is good for the environment and good for other commuters because it reduces congestion.

The little picture at this big company is: designating carpool-only spaces and enforcing the policies requires an investment.

Building more parking is NEVER cheap. "Free parking" is a misnomer. Depending on the cost of the land, the cost of a SINGLE parking space ranges from $3,000 to $225,000 [Manhattan], plus the annual cost of maintaining it. The life expectancy of a parking garage is about 30 years.

Shifting away from single-occupancy vehicle commuting shifting away from traditional infrastructure, which requires time, money and planning.

Maybe this company will make preferred parking for carpoolers a central attraction to their parking situation.

Carpooling is an attitude

Growing up, in order to use a paper towel or get a ride somewhere, you needed to be a lawyer with a convincing argument. My parents focused on providing the essentials for their brood of nine children: shelter, food and love.

"Rides" was not on the list. They were as valuable as paper towels, and not to be wasted.

As a 16-year-old, I signed up for an adult education course at the University of Delaware, 13 miles away in Newark, Del. In Delaware in 1973, Wilmington to Newark was a long way and required a toll of either 10 or 15 cents.

You had to drive on back roads for a bit longer if you took the first exit on the new interstate, but you saved a nickel – when it meant something.

So did a car. Every person over age 16 was not expected to have a car. There were still one-car families. With a hoard of drivers, we had two cars, but I was only allowed to use it for the first class, when my mother instructed me to find a carpool.

In those days, we didn't have the Internet. I found a match the old-fashioned way. I asked if anyone was coming from Wilmington. Two guys, who must have been 20-something, offered me a ride.

Today, they might not have passed a CORI check. Most mothers wouldn't encourage their shapely teenage daughter to get into a car with two unknown men. My mother was a trusting soul. I really wanted to take the class. Even though it was awkward, I did what my mother said. I think I paid the tolls.

My mother created a life-long attitude in me towards carpooling. It doesn't hurt. Ask and you shall receive. You will save money and resources. Strangers can be trusted. Carpool partners are lurking all around.

Born in 1919 and 1921, my parents grew up in the Great Depression. They knew how to stretch a dollar or a nickel. My mother remembers frantically scouring their apartment in Chicago for seven cents so her mother, a physician, could ride the trolley downtown to go to work.

My father recalls saving for a year for $2 to buy a new tire for his bike. When he prepared to buy the tire, his family needed the cash. He started to save again, and after two years, bought the tire and his freedom on a bike.

Children today don't have the experience of delayed gratification. They don't understand that things are not the essence of life. At the end of my mother's long life, I gave her a bumper sticker, "The best things in life are not things," a phrase she lived by, and displayed on her car.

Thanks, Mom and Dad.

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.

25 percent reduction in traffic unclogs congestion

I spend about 15 minutes a day going the last 5 miles of my commute on four-lane arterial road - Route 9 in Framingham. Today, a Friday in August, there was no congestion because many people took the day off.

FACT: If only 25 percent of commuters don't show up, the congestion on most roads is eased.

If commuters on busy roads, like Route 9, 128 or 93 in MetroBoston for example, carpooled one day a week, a mere 20 percent of the time, traffic would be substantially diminished. We all would benefit. If half of all commuters would carpool two days a week, the same outcome would be achieved. Presto- no need to widen roads or sit in traffic daily.

Carpooling is like recycling and paying taxes. We might not like it, it's inconvenient.
But if we all contribute a little, the results are big.

Americans consider giving up driving alone as loathesome as going on a diet, bucking the consumerist traditions in December, or telling politically INcorrect jokes.

We Americans love the convenience and freedom of driving alone. Even giving up a little driving alone is considered painful, and as difficult as quitting something like sugar or smoking.

TransMileneo -- worth importing from Colombia

About a decade ago, Colombian traffic "experts" were planning to build a second story of roads above congested streets to make way for more vehicles driven by one person.

Officials finally discarded the expensive, unsustainable, and ludicrous idea -- maybe after they found out about the Big Pig, I mean Big Dig, here in Boston.

Instead of spending billions of dollars [sound familiar?] to make way for more and more cars, they attacked the problem from a different angle, and created a network of bus rapid transit lanes connected to bikeways to transport the city's 7 million people.

TransMilenio moves 1.3 million people a day on buses going 17 to 25 mph, compared to 6 mph average for NYC buses. Bogata is close enough to the Equator to avoid rugged winter weather. They have a significant population of people unable to afford to own and operate cars.

Take a look --http://www.streetfilms.org/archives/bus-rapid-transit-bogota/. The video shows attended parking lots of bikes next to the TransMilenio stations. Using bus-only lanes, buses pull up to elevated platforms so strollers and wheelchairs roll right on. It's like an above-ground subway, built at a fraction of the cost.

Buses run continuously and dependably throughout the day and night. The system is so good, commuters from all walks of life use it. The main complaint is too many people use it!

Bikes are foundational to the system. TransMileneo encourages bike commuting to the station because it eliminates the need for neighborhood buses to bring people to the TransMilenio, and saves money by requiring fewer local buses to get people to the main stations. What's really impressed me is attended bike storage facilities at the transit stations.

Many commuters prefer public transit over carpooling because carpooling is so, personal. Riding a bus is impersonal. You have your private space, thoughts and music. You don't have to talk. You can take an earlier or later bus without conferring with your carpool partner. Great public transit enables the great American value of "Freedom of Movement," when I want it, where I want it.

Buses are typically disdained as lower class. People prefer rail and subways, which are expensive to build and not as flexible as buses. Bus Rapid Transit provides a cost-effective solution.

America- we're behind the trend. We need to go to Colombia to copy an idea worth importing.

Where to ride out a gas crisis

CNN named 10 places in America to "ride out a gas crisis"
http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/moneymag/0807/gallery.bplive_gas_crunch.moneymag/index.html.

Four of them are small towns, and the average commute is 8-10 minutes in Marquette, Mich.; Hays, Kan.; Laramie, Wyo.; and Aberdeen, S.D. I'm not sure where people work in these small towns, except as close as the local quick-stop, school or post office.

In three places, 11-12 percent of people tele-commute from home -- Naples, Fla., Bainbridge Island, Wash., and Westport, Conn. Commuters there live in a beautiful place and are too remote, too educated and too wealthy to drive to work daily.

In a university town, State College, Penn., 42 percent bike or walk to work. That's cool. It's part of the culture. Biking and walking are the high-status ways to get around. Footpower is friendlier than car-power. Being a university town, it's also fashionable to live frugally, with fewer cars.

Outside of New York City in Hoboken, N.J., a majority of commuters take advantage of one of the nation's finest public transit systems to get to work. Only 25 percent of commuters drive alone to work in Hoboken. I'd take the bus, too, if it ran every 15 minutes, within a stone's throw of my house.

My favorite place is the Santa Paula, Call, where 29 percent of commuters carpool to work. Want to know why? They're migrant workers in the Citrus Capital of the World. The farm workers share vehicles to commute to the orange, lemon, avocado and strawberry fields.

The message here? The most devoted carpoolers in America are migrant workers. It explains why carpooling is such a tough sell, especially if you can afford the luxury of your own car. We aspire to do what the wealthy in our society do, not the poorest.

Finding a carpool partner is a bit like a dating service

While speaking about the dozen people with whom I've carpooled in the past three years -- the good, the great, the too loud, the too late and the long-winded -- someone in the audience said, "Finding a carpool sounds like a dating service."

He nailed it. That's why carpooling is so tricky. Our cars are personal spaces, and our commutes are potentially long.

In a two-person carpool, compatibility is a MUST, not an option. For carpools with three or more, even the most odious, loud-mouthed person can hopefully be diluted by the other people in the carpool.

Most carpools have two people for maximum simplicity and flexibility. So your match must meet three standards:

1. You must work near each other. Otherwise, you will waste a lot of time driving. You DON'T have to live near each other, just on the way to work or near a meeting place.

2. You must work the same hours -- or be willing to compromise on the days you carpool. The compromise must be made FREELY, or else it will not work out for long. One person will start resenting it.

3. You must be compatible -- especially in a two-person carpool. Then the carpool will be enjoyable. You'll be willing to do small favors for each other and will look forward to your time together. Even if that time is spent in silence. Talking machines can be very annoying.

I am not able to drive to work with people who have loud voices, talk too much, have not mastered the art of listening, or are unreliable or uncommunicative. We don't have to agree on everything. I can stand carpooling with Republicans -- as long as they listen to my perspective, too. Or maybe we avoid the topic of politics altogether.

My carpool partners and I are not dating or getting married, but we sort of are -- because we do drive together plenty. It's just that the destination is work and not a date.

Carpooling is HOT in the media

Check out this story that features companies and carpoolers in my program, the MetroWest/495 Transportation Management Association.

My job is to promote carpooling, bike commuting, taking public transit, vanpooling and walking to work.

If the Boston Globe cares about it, finally, it must be news.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/07/24/a_new_credo_for_commuters_more_is_less/

"Why Won't We Carpool"

Carpooling is making it into the mainstream of American media thanks to the latest four-buck a gallon fuel-frenzy. The Boston Globe Magazine cover feature story, "Why Won't We Carpool: it's cheaper. It's greener. And nobody's doing it" by Alison Lobron, was accompanied by a photo of a crowded road and an empty HOV lane. http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/magazine/articles/2008/07/20/anybody_want_a_ride/

Why aren't we doing it?
My carpool buddy Rick summed it up this morning, when he dropped me off. "I don't like the inconvenience of carpooling. But once I'm doing it, I enjoy it."

Like most carpools, he and John don't carpool daily. They drive together on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which leaves three other days for the American luxury of going when we want, where we want, and how we want, preferably on a "free" road without congestion, in perfect condition, to "free" parking.

John and Rick are from my old carpool -- since I moved I have formed new carpools. I called them because my new carpoolers were on vacation this week. I was lonely and the thought of $8 in gas [plus wear and tear] to get to and from work seemed a waste.

Especially in Boston, there's little motivation to carpool because we have scant HOV lanes. The cover photo was of the only HOV lane I know of in Massachusetts. Route 3 to NH was widened without a HOV lane. Route 128/95 is planned to expand to five lanes, with no HOV lane.

As Lobron pointed out in the Globe story, elsewhere in the US, HOV lanes provide motivation for people to carpool because driveres get there FASTER. 90 percent of Americans own cars, and we shoulder their exorbitant cost --because they bring us status, comfort, privacy and convenient transportation. Money is not always the issue. We can earn more money. We all have the same amount of time.

Rick and John can afford to drive alone. They enjoy carpooling. The side benefits are they save a few bucks and they are doing something good for the earth.

$4 gas is motivating people with less dispensable income to drive less. As Lobron demonstrates, we have still not hit the tipping point for the majority of Americans to change their driving habits, which would influence the transportation planners and civil engineers to include HOV and bike lanes in road design.

The crew of one of the TV morning shows taped themselves carpooling to work together. It was quaint. They made a point. Carpooling is in the mainstream media, but not in the mainstream American consciousness.

Giving up our addiction to driving alone is like going on a diet -- it's easy to talk about, it's the right thing to do, but our old friends sugar-butter-chocolate are always there and so tempting, just like driving alone.

Look Ma, No Car!

"I'm here to say that the [bike] ride's almost always the best part of my day. If you're willing to make some minor lifestyle changes, it can be for you as well."

That is my favorite line in Ty Burr's column "Ditch the Auto, Saddle Up and Reduce your Commuting Costs to Zero" in Sidekick, July 21, 2008 Boston Globe, http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/green/articles/2008/07/21/look_ma_no_car/ He's the Boston Globe's film critic.

People laughed at me yesterday at the lunchroom of a multi-national company when I suggested bike commuting when they told me they live less than 10 miles from work.

It's my job to work a table at big companies in MetroWest Boston to promote carpooling, bike commuting and taking public transit to work. Commuters often laugh out loud when I say, "Why don't you bike to work?"

The idea is so crazy, so far outside of their paradigm, they think it's ludicrous. They're missing out on Ty Burr's secret: Biking to work is almost the best part of the day.

I call bike commuting the TRIPLE GOOD commute: you look good, you feel good, and you're doing good for the earth.

For three summers, I bike commuted 8 miles between Westford and Concord, MA, about twice a week, in those glory days when gas was less than $2/gallon.

Battling the hills, inhaling the sweet odors of wild grapes and freshly mowed hay, and getting lost in the scenery, made me forget everything else. The ride home was particularly sweet and unpedaled me from the stress of work.

Yet people can't even entertain the notion of abandoning their car for a bike commute.

1/3 of the problem: biking is low-status (unless you get a high status bike and the gear to accompany). For the most part, biking is for people with few options, the young, or the fitness-crazed.

1/3 of the problem: biking is physical. We Americans are lazy slugs who would rather drive to the gym rather than plan to bike commute. And bike commuting requires planning ahead.

1/3 of the problem: we lack the infrastructure -- streets wide enough to accomodate bikes, bike lanes and paths, bike storage areas, showers at work, bike racks on buses, bike safety awareness by drivers. People feel unsafe and vulnerable when biking on many roads.

Contact me and I'll come talk to your group about getting started bike commuting. I tell a funny and informative story about "my first day of bike commuting." It gets you laughing, thinking and planning for your first day of bike commuting.

Once you start bike commuting, you'll be laughing, too, because it's so much fun, and the mental and physical benefits far exceed sitting in a car.

Transient nature of carpoolers

My best carpool partner and I haven't carpooled together in at least a month. She's my "best" because given the choice, we work exactly the same hours. Neither of us needs to accommodate the other by going in early or coming home later than we normally would.

We don't work at the same company [desirable in a carpool], or live near each other [Pam drives 15 minutes to pick me up, then we drive the remaining 45 minutes to our office park].

Those are immaterial, because we work the same hours.
Pam is also my "best" carpool partner because we have become friends.
Trust me, if you don't like your carpool partner[s], the carpool will fade away.

Unfortunately, it's easy for a carpool to fade away. Take Pam and me. Summer vacations and schedule changes -- when I have to come in early for bike to work events and off-site meetings, have interfered with our Wednesday carpool.

Pam saves even more by tele-commuting the other three days a week that she works, so her carbon footprint is light. I'm afraid I'm going to lose her altogether if she receives permission to work from home every day.

One of my previous carpools -- with four guys who worked for Bose -- is struggling to survive after I moved away two years ago. John and I were the most regular commuting duo. The other three knew when and where we met, and they were always welcome to join us, schedule permitting.

One of the three guys moved, and the other two frequently travel for business or have to work late regularly. They don't make good carpool partners. John could leave anytime, and pick up his work at home, by tele-commuting. Like Pam, John and I enjoyed each other's company, worked similar hours, and didn't live very close to each other.

I was sad to leave that carpool. I thought I left it in good hands, but apparently not. Carpools are fleeting things. A committed carpooler must always be on the prowl for her next driving buddy.

Some carpools last a long time. Take the case of Jack and John, two Raytheon engineers who live near each other in Holliston and have commuted together for 22 years.
They're two regular guys who see the value of driving less, saving more. They're quiet, understated and regular about their carpooling.

Elaine and I are a pretty good carpool. She just got a promotion, so her workday could go longer than I prefer. However, I think we'll survive the tumult, because we enjoy our drive together, she lives on my way to work, and she is mostly punctual -- except when she gets too involved in work! Because we like each other, we can forgive shortcomings and occasional slip ups.

We'll see how long this carpool continues. So far, we manage one or two days a week, mostly because of irregularities in my schedule. If everyone carpooled one or two days a week, the air would be a lot less polluted and most traffic jams would dissipate.

It's not that hard to carpool.

Bustin's Island -- a car-free summer colony

This story in The New Yorker http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/07/07/080707fa_fact_kolbert?printable=true about a Danish island that decided to lower its carbon footprint, reminds me of Bustin's Island in the Casco Bay, on the Maine Coast, east of Freeport and Portland.

In the 1990s, my husband and I were like the Beverly Hillbillies: we would load up our four kids and dog on our full-size conversion van [8 cylnders, that is].

On the roof and back, we tied on canoes, a wind surfer, and six bikes. Inside, we crammed food, tennis rackets and games, stuffed animals, books, linens and clothing for two car-free weeks on an 80-acre paradise surrounded by ocean.

We visited the island four different summers, taking 2-week vacations on this idyllic place. We put the brakes on our frenetic pace of life, and s-l-o-w-e-d down to the 19th century way of life -- without the internal combustion engine, flush toilet, telephone or computer.

The first task was to load everything up on Archie's Ferry [a converted lobster boat] in Freeport, and transport it to the island. At the dock, we had the option of hiring one of the island's two trucks to help, but we used our built-in labor and handcarts, of course --low-carbon and low-cost all the way.

Conjuring up the memories of our last visit a decade ago, I feel my blood pressure go down, and a sense of calm wash over me. I have memories of reading books all afternoon, exploring the island, canoeing out to see the wild seals, letting the kids roam free all over the island, and relaxing.

Every day at 2 pm, all of the kids on the island played baseball. The younger you were, the bigger the bat. Everyone got a hit. No adults interfered. They managed.

At night, we read more books, played Charades, cards and other games. Occasionally, community events were held for amusement -- like a talent show. Early on, we made fools of ourselves singing "Rueben, Rueben, I've been Thinking," and acted out a simple story line on stage. This foolishness broke down barriers between us and the islanders whose families have been coming to Bustin's Island for generations. They began including us in their culture.

What is the lure of car-free vacationing, with outhouses, sun-showers, propane stoves, fridges and lights?

Peace of mind. Peace of soul. Calm. Connection to the earth and the people and the place where we were. No agenda. No where to go. I can smell the sea breeze, taste the frigid salt water, fresh blackberries picked by the kids [who are now all 20-somethings] and feel the sun warming my skin. All by walking, paddling or pedaling.