Carpooling, here I come!

Last summer, my twice weekly carpooling came to an abrupt end when the man I was carpooling with left me stranded at work. I was angry about the situation and decided to just end the carpooling relationship rather than trying again. It had been nearly a year we had driven together without incident so I was hurt over this lapse. Not long after, gasoline began its meteoric rise, and I began seeking alternatives to driving every day. Currently, I have one work-at-home day every two weeks and have gained some extra money from work for a high speed internet connection at home. However, that still means every day I go to work, I have to drive.

Enter craigslist and its rideshare listing. I started looking at this section when a posting to my company-specific bulletin board yielding nothing. When I did not see anything that matched my criteria on craigslist, I posted an ad of my own seeking a carpooling partner part time. I found carpooling a couple days a week gave me some break in the pocketbook, and I drove one fewer day a week. So a part-time gig would work well for me. No one e-mailed, and so I was stymied.

Luckily, I kept looking at the rideshare listing and found someone from my town who would be going my way to work. We ended up corresponding via e-mail and did a test run. It worked out well for both of us. I get tired of driving myself everywhere and she preferred to drive. We settled on what I would pay her for driving me, I found my carpooling buddy easy to talk to and she knew people from my old high school!

While I wish I had access to public transit, I have found a substitution. Now I am looking forward to carpooling again with someone who prefers driving and does not mind me paying her for the opportunity to ride with her. Plus we are a little kinder to mother earth, extend the life of my car, and lessen the frustration for other drivers with less traffic on the road. A nice situation in which to be!