Swap Lonely Commute for Carpooling

Have you thought about sharing your drive to and from work?

The region’s four councils are launching Let’s Carpool – a promotion for carpooling throughout the region.

The website letscarpool.govt.nz has a Taranaki section where people will be able to arrange carpooling with others on the same route.

“Basically this promotion is about making it easier for people to share their daily commute rather than travel by themselves,” says NPDC Let’s Go Project Manager Carl Whittleston.

“The website is free to join. You just put in information about your daily commute and see if anyone who lives near you is travelling the same way.

“Even if people carpool only one day a week, we’ll reduce the number of single-occupancy vehicles on the road and save money, increase road safety and help the environment.”

The website has tips on how to make carpooling successful, including safety advice and how to set up emergency ride-home options in workplaces.

Mr Whittleston says there are no accurate figures on the amount of carpooling currently in the region although larger organisations around the mountain have informal ride-sharing systems in place.

“There is a lot of potential to make carpooling successful in places where a lot of people travel to each day, such as WITT, Fonterra, Taranaki Base Hospital and other large organisations.

“However you don’t need to work at a busy place for carpooling to be possible. The beauty of the carpooling website is that it matches people according to their travel routes, not where they work.”