Car pooling can save you a ton of money on gas and parking and it certainly cuts down on the CO2 we're spewing into the atmosphere, but it can be a drag. No one wants to creep along in rush-hour traffic with a Phil Collins devotee who has only a passing familiarity with soap and won't pony up for gas.
CarBuddy.com is here to make carpooling a breeze. The Michigan firm has launched a website you can use to organize a carpool based on where you work, how you get there and what kind of people you'd like to ride with. Once it has found the riders, it calculates commuting costs by factoring fuel costs and the wear and tear on the car so everyone pays a fair share. Even better, it provides traffic updates via text message so you don't get stuck behind that pileup on the expressway. It will even summon a free taxi if the guy who is supposed to pick you up calls in sick
"We wanted to create a business that helps bring like-minded people who care about saving money and the environment together," founder and president Albert Rodriguez told Wired.com. "We waste too much energy coming and going to and from the same places. It's time we started combining our resources."
The service is only available in Detroit but plans to expand to other cities.
When you sign up with CarBuddy.com, you provide info about where you are, where you're headed and who you'd like to ride with. You also say whether you want to drive or ride. CarBuddy matches you with a gender-specific ride partner of the same general age and driving habits like smoking, chatting or listening to those annoying morning shows where the hosts never shut up. You can only use it for commuting to work, and you can't join if you don't own a car. It also works best for people on a regular schedule, but the site lets you change your schedule on a weekly basis.
Once Carbuddy.com has helped fill a car, it calculates the cost of the ride based upon how many people are riding and other factors like gas, tolls and the like. Everyone pays Carbuddy, which then reimburses the driver for out-of-pocket expenses. It also keeps 8 percent for providing the service - so if the carpool costs $54 a week in gas and other expenses, Carbuddy's take is $4.32.
Rodriguez says that figure is hardly significant when you consider how much you'll save on gas and depreciation if you're driving solo. The guys behind the site claim the average "carbuddy" - that's what they call subscribers - can save more than $1,400 a year and eliminate 4,620 pounds of C02 emissions.
Rodriguez wouldn't tell us how many people have signed up so far. But he says the company plans to expand to Los Angeles, Dallas, Miami and Atlanta soon.
If you want to see how much you could save in in a commuter carpool, check out the CommuteCostCalculator.
*Photo: Flickr / darren131. The photo was taken in Aukland, New Zealand, which explains why the steering wheel is on the right.
*
