Athird party will soon join Lori Cunniff’s 50-mile carpool from Merritt Island to the Orange County offices in downtown Orlando. She and another co-worker have been sharing a vehicle to work for two years, originally doing it to save the earth and are now reaping the benefits of saving green, as in cash. More people are trading in their solo ride and buddying up with colleagues who live nearby.
More than 50 new carpools were formed through a Lynx matching program this year. Lynx helps to match commuters living within five miles of each other and working no more than one mile apart. Online carpool inquires are up 8 percent this year. Orange County has 215 Lynx-matched carpools with 482 participants.
A total of 3,349 people participated in Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties in 2007 — up from 1,038 from 2003. The Lynx van pool program, which allows a group to lease a van, dividing the cost evenly among riders, has increased 9 percent this year with more than 65 vans leased.
Matthew Friedman, Lynx manager of media relations, said the cost is usually around $450 a month per van, which covers maintenance and insurance. Applications for the carpool matching and van programs are available at golynx.com.
While carpools at individual companies are hard to track because they are largely left up to employees to set up, many local companies report that they do exist and are increasingly popular as gas prices climb.
The average price at the pump across Orlando is creeping close to $4. According to AAA Auto Club South, the average price for gas hung around $3.90 last week compared to $2.85 a year ago. An Environmental Protection Agency study found that a sample carpool saving 10,000 vehicle miles per year would save about 500 gallons of gasoline.
It would also reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 9,900 pounds. Traffic congestion also stands to be relieved by 20 percent if everyone carpooled once a week, according to the Lynx Web site. Petra Dann, spokeswoman for Siemens Shared Services, a Siemens Power Generation sister company also located in East Orlando, reported benefits beyond saving the environment and gas money after setting up a carpool matching program for all of their 270 employees last month.
The program was initiated after multiple requests for such a service were made in the Siemens electronic employee suggestion box. As the carpools formed, Dann said relationships among colleagues grew stronger, which is good for company moral and productivity. “It is mostly good for people to get to know each other outside of work. There is a social dynamic there and it promotes team-building,” she said.
“[These employees are] willing to go the extra mile for one another. There are no hard dollars you can attribute to carpooling, but employee satisfaction is up.” A carpool matchup program is also in the works at the University of Central Florida for its more than 10,000 faculty and staff members as well as its nearly 49,000 students.
Orange County is also researching a similar program for its employees. Carpooling can be difficult for some employees who live and work in the same areas but have different schedules. Cunniff said she and her carpool buddy had to make concessions. She now arrives to work at 6:30 a.m. when her colleague must be at the office, even though her former schedule started closer to 9 a.m.
They also leave the office later than her colleague was used to, especially when Cunniff must attend evening meetings. “At first it seems like a compromise, but you learn you can do other things,” she said. “Once I realized how much lighter the traffic was that early in the morning, it was worth it.
I love coming in early now because it is very quiet so I can catch up before everything starts going crazy. It is a peaceful time.” David Grovdahl, Metroplan Orlando director of transportation planning, said many people would not be willing to make such compromises. “People adjust their lifestyle to accommodate the gas prices by cutting back on the unnecessary trips like driving to lunch and going to the park.
A carpool sounds nice, but people need a backup plan in case of an emergency situation where they need a car. People are reluctant to give up their individual cars.” But in Cunniff’s case, neither carpooler has young children so they consider the risk of an emergency trip home in the middle of the day minimal.
During two years of carpooling Cunniff said her colleague only had to unexpectedly leave early once because he was ill. Cunniff could not leave immediately, but was able to duck out a few hours early to take him home. Dann said Siemens managers try to be as flexible as they can with scheduling to allow for carpool matchups.
They also work with employees who are interested in the 10-hour day, four-day work week to help cut gas spending and carbon emissions.
