For about the past 10 years I’ve noticed the “carpool”, which traditionally means two or more people sharing one car, to be used to mean the process of dropping off or picking up one’s child from school. Evidently the parents usually have to wait in a long line of cars to reach the pick-up/drop-off point, and they’ll describe this as “sitting in carpool”, or “waiting in carpool”.
I’m wondering how this usage came about, since it seems to have very little to do with actual carpooling. Were such arrangements called “carpool” with the hope that the parents would find a way to actually carpool, as in sharing vehicles? Or was it just one of those usages that sprang up of its own accord? Is it regional?
If you are a parent, and you drive your kids to and from school, do you use the term “carpool” with the newer meaning?