I was almost going to take the “one less car” button off my backpack before I left the house this morning, but I realized it still applied: me and my carpooling partner who I was on my way to pick up conspired to keep one less car on the road today.
And the process was surprisingly painless. In checking with the officer manager last week at my new gig in regards to any rideshare/mass transit/alt-commute programs and such, I was directed to the building’s management, which coordinates and oversees such things. In short order I was online at the ridelinks page of their website and completing a short form that asked me where I was commuting from and at what times and what options I was interested in.
After submitting that info I did a search for any people who lived in my area of the city and wouldn’t you know 1.6 miles away from me there was one by the name of Pam. So I emailed her to see if she was game and she emailed back and said heck yeah and the next day I called her office and said howsabout Monday and she said sounds great and I picked her up near Beverly and Normandie at 8 a.m. on the dot and we carpooled across town in about 50 minutes worth of nice get-acquainted conversation.
Sure I’ve carpooled in the sense that friends and/or family are sitting in the passenger seat enabling me to take advantage of a diamond lane on the freeway, but I’ve never done so to work and back with a complete and total stranger.
Definitely nice to have that added option to go to in my alternate commute arsenal.