Who cares about MPG?

Car manufacturers have been implementing various fuel saving technologies in their vehicles ever since the first fuel crunch in the 70's. A few decades later, the focus of a lot of consumers has once again shifted to fuel economy. The success of hybrid cars such as the Toyota Prius and the gaining popularity of Hypermiling indicates that more people are paying attention to the efficiency of their vehicles.

However, although a lot of people notice L/100 km or MPG figures posted on car windows in car lots, one often overlooked figure is that of PMPG - Person Miles per Gallon (or L/P/100km?). Since the purpose of most vehicles is to move the occupants from one point to another, the PMPG figure is arguably more relevant than straight MPG. A person can decrease their fuel consumption by a few percent here and there by adjusting their driving techniques, tuning their vehicle, etc. but the fuel consumption per person can easily be doubled, tripled, or quadrupled simply by carpooling.



I don't think that carpooling is a foreign concept to anyone reading this post, as it is a fairly simple thing to implement. All you need is a car capable of carrying more than one person (not a problem unless you drive a race car to work), one or more people that live in your area and travel to the same spot, and a somewhat fixed schedule. The first and the third item on the list are pretty much a no-brainer if you work in an office and drive to work every day. Finding someone to carpool with can be a little bit more challenging. You can start by asking around on your work's bulletin board, be it a physical one or a virtual one. If you don't work for a large company, you could try sites such as carpool.ca to find people to drive with to a general location.

There are several arrangements that are possible with carpooling, but probably the most common one is where each person in the carpool drives their car on set days. For example, if three people are in a carpool, each person drives every three work days. This person would pick up and drop off everybody else on their chosen day. A modification to this arrangement is to have everybody meet in a fixed spot, and then alternate the driving from there, which is handy if you don't all live in the same area. Some flexibility is required to be able to switch driving days in case someone can't make it to work on their day due to illness, or what not.

Advantages
Apart from the obvious benefit that I covered in the introduction of saving gas, there are a few added benefits to carpooling. First off, reducing vehicle use can reduce not only fuel usage, but also things like your maintenance and replacement costs for your vehicles. If you drive half as much as a typical commuter you would only replace wear items such as tires and brakes half as often, your vehicle would suffer half as much damage from rocks, weather, and other vehicles, etc. Another area where you can save in larger cities is on parking, since you are only paying for parking on the days that you drive.

If you live in a two car household, carpooling can reduce your vehicle use to the point where you may be able to reduce the number of cars you own. Even if you can't carpool with a spouse/partner due to them working in a different location, you could share a single vehicle by each having a carpool and driving on different days.

Another benefit to carpooling is the reduction in traffic and congestion due to having fewer vehicles on the road at the same time. While one vehicle might not make a huge difference, if a significant portion of the population was carpooling during their commute traffic flow would be greatly improved, which would decrease travel times and further decrease fuel consumption.

Finally, when it's not your turn to drive, carpooling allows you to relax and not concentrate on you commute. You can take a nap, read, or just chat with your fellow carpoolers, which leaves you less stressed due to your commute.

Disadvantages
Like everything else, carpooling is not for everyone and does have some drawbacks. The biggest one is probably finding the right people to carpool with. The requirements are fairly stringent in that they have to carpool to and from the same general area as you, at about the same time. For people working in a downtown core or other popular commercial/industrial area this is probably much easier to deal with than people who work in smaller centres. Your work schedule has to be pretty well fixed from day to day as well.

Punctuality is important in carpooling. If one person is late getting out the door it holds everybody else up. People will not want to carpool with you if you are habitually late. The person driving the carpool on his/her day generally has to leave a bit earlier than everyone else in order to make the rounds to pick everybody up.

Lastly, you should be somewhat choosy about picking people to carpool with. You will be spending a fair amount of time each day with them in close proximity. While you don't necessarily have to be buddies (in fact, you don't even really have to talk to them if you don't want to) it helps to be with someone who you don't dislike, at least.

With those things in mind, if you want to save a little bit of money on your morning commute, carpooling is definitely something you should look into. It is much easier to share the car with one other person than it is to double your fuel mileage.