Car pools make a splash

It’s basic math, really. Sixty bucks for a tank of gas divided by one wallet is 60 bucks. Sixty bucks for a tank of gas divided by four wallets is only 15. Car-pooling is cost effective (and easier on the environment). And it’s up in and around Ann Arbor. Excerpt: The Ann Arbor Transportation Authority van and car pooling program now has 3,588 participants, a 15 percent increase over last year, says Mary Stasiak, AATA community relations manager. Web-based ride-sharing sites have made finding potential matches easier. A search on Erideshare.com for car pools to a downtown Ann Arbor zip code returned 90 hits. The U-M Greenride Web portal has more than 2,500 users after its launch only a couple of months ago, said David Miller, U-M director for parking and transportation. More than 2,500 employees have registered with the site so far, he said. Fourteen new van pools and 15 new car pools have registered with U-M to date. Overall, ride-sharing is up 8 percent among cars and 20 percent in the van-sharing program – and those are the just the ride-shares that U-M has registered. Read the entire article here.