Anyone else’s city/town have those stupid public service announcements??
“Don’t be an S.O.V (single occupancy vehicle), You use so many resources when it’s just you in your car, use share-a-ride, Save on Gas, save our environment, Use the Bus, blah, blah,…”
And they go on and on with more stuff intended to try and make us feel horribly guilty about (GASP) driving our vehicles.
Thing is, realistically, how many basically “normal” people have schedules that will “match” other riders so that they CAN carpool etc?
Mine depends on the semester:
M-F Potentially 1-4 classes per semester, some starting at 7am, and the latest one ending at 9PM.
That’s not including my “real” job, at which we all make our own hours, so, what “carpool team” is going to also sometimes show up at 730 and sometimes at 10am, and sometimes not at all, having decided to work from home, or having gotten shipped off on a 2 week project in some remote area?
Look public service people. Shut up. If a person is in a vehicle by him or herself, he/she likely has a good reason for it. Either that, Or else get some decent public transportation available.
I drive anywhere from 40 miles to 160 miles a day. Between classes (at my school 60 miles away) and work (from 3 different remote offices ranging anywhere from 12 to 80 miles away) and having a lot of family and friends living approximately 150 miles from me (whom I visit regularly) finding a “carpool” is downright laughable.
Possibly they’re aimed at the people who CAN carpool rather than you personally? If THOSE people cut back a little, YOU can continue to screw the planet’s future with impunity. So it’s winners all round!
I would love to car pool but it’s not practical. For one, only 3 or 4 people live anywhere near where I live (I live in one city, and work in another 33 KM away). Our shifts would have to be exactly the same (not possible).
What I would do is drive to some sort of car pool station and take public transit but the city I work in has lousy public transit. It’s either I take my car for a 25 minute ride or take the TTC which takes over 3 hours to get to work.
I have heard that in some cities, there are informal carpools. Usually loosely tied to HOV lanes or reduced tolls with multiple passengers. Some people wait in various well known locations, people with cars pick them up, drive to a dropoff point and everyone’s happy.
That I could do.
I would also be willing to drive the one person cars (like the ones I saw as “cars of the future” when I was little) that are smaller, don’t have a passenger seat, do have a trunk, use less gas, and presumably emit less waste. But I’ve only seen one, ever, and they look prohibitively expensive.
But for the forseeable future, carpooling just won’t work and public transit is more expensive and takes longer than the car.
Yep, at least for my needs. The trip from my home to Mississauga is far too long including 40 minutes to a subway station, 40 minutes to kipling (the last) subway station and then a lovely wait and bus ride into mississauga (1.5 hours at least).
After visiting Montreal with their subway system, I gotta say Toronto was shafted. How the hell can a smaller city afford a much better subway system than Toronto? Our subway system sucks so much compared to Montreal. I’d rather have an expansive subway than surface bus system. Maybe we opted for the wrong services.
Yep, at least for my needs. The trip from my home to Mississauga is far too long including 40 minutes to a subway station, 40 minutes to kipling (the last) subway station and then a lovely wait and bus ride into mississauga (1.5 hours at least).
After visiting Montreal with their subway system, I gotta say Toronto was shafted. How the hell can a smaller city afford a much better subway system than Toronto? Our subway system sucks so much compared to Montreal. I’d rather have an expansive subway than surface bus system. Maybe we opted for the wrong services.
Well, to be fair, “Toronto” (Greater Toronto Area) is a lot bigger than it used to be. If you’re commuting in from an outlying area, then public transit ranges from pretty good to abysmal - it depends on where’s you’re coming from/going to.
We have that were I live. Unfortunately, my hours are so wacky (a normal day for me is about 10-12 hours, plus however long I’m stuck in the library studying after night class) that it’d never work.
And I may just be being a bit hyperparanoid, but does anyone else find the whole “get in some random stranger’s car and go” thing a little…disconcerting?
Do you have to register or something or can any Joe Schmo just pull up and pick up anyone standing there waiting for a ride? If it’s the latter, it sounds a bit dangerous. Doesn’t sound too much different than hitchhiking, actually. But many people do it so I’m assuming it’s not quite like that. Is there anyone here who does that? I’m all curious now.