Car pooling scheme is effective argue against this statement - Essay Example

Carpooling scheme is not effective In recent times, carpooling has increasingly become popular amongst the regular commuters. Carpooling can broadlybe defined as an arrangement of sharing a common transport for commuting between two defined destinations at predetermined time slot. It is also most common amongst working friends and acquaintances whose workplace and home are located on common route (Paterson, 2004). The transport is usually a private vehicle whose cost is shared. In some cases, where workplace is located at remote distance, group of employees prefer carpooling as it may save their time and individual cost of travel.

While there seem to be many advantages to it, huge list of disadvantages also make it highly inconvenient for lot of people. The paper would primarily be discussing those shortfalls of carpooling. One of the most important disadvantages is that it considerably restricts the freedom of choice of the people who are part of carpooling arrangement. People can only move back and forth between two travel points which adversely impacts on their independence. Punctuality is of paramount importance because others are also involved who cannot afford to be late because of one person.

Their temporary or sudden change of travel plans cannot be accommodated within the arrangement that leaves the person with the inconvenience of finding or using alternate mode of transport at short notice. Indeed, the emergency situations in such plans are not included, which can happen anytime and anywhere. In fact, it totally fails to address this aspect for individual cases. Another important issue is that of privacy of individuals. The people have to sacrifice their personal space and accommodate with the eccentricities of others.

They also cannot have confidential conversation on their mobile or include their relation or friend in the arrangement at short notice. Some people also have peculiar habit or habits that they do not like others to know. In such cases, they are inclined to be more conscious of their actions and consequently become more stressed. This may adversely impact their overall health and well being. Occasional smokers or persons with certain health problems could find the arrangement very inconvenient and obtrusive.

The carpooling can also result in huge wastage of invaluable time if one of the occupants is unavoidably delayed or meets with some emergency in midway. People, who have high profile jobs and need to be punctual in their workplace timings, are liable to be at risk of losing their important official programs if they are part of carpool. The picking and dropping arrangement at predetermined place and time often becomes a huge detriment to the people who have flexible schedule (Anderson and Ungemah, 1999).

The waste of time thus incurred could also result in significant financial loss. These are important disadvantages that make carpooling not only inconvenient but also highly irrelevant for people who do not have fixed working schedule. Last not the least important factor is that carpooling needs to have minimum number of people so that it can become cost effective. At the same time, people’s destination should also lie on the same route. Hence if one or more of the person quits the arrangement due to change of job or otherwise, the viability of arrangement fails.

Consequently for others, it becomes very inconvenient to make fresh arrangement at short notice. Therefore, it can be justifiably concluded that carpooling is not convenient. (words: 556) Reference Anderson, S., & Ungemah, D.(1999) Variable Work Hours: An Implementation Guide for Employers. USA: Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. Available from [Accessed 20 April 2011]. Paterson D.(2004) Car pooling – targeting for success. presented at the 27th Australasian Transport Research Forum.

Adelaide, Australia.