Sometimes I hear friends say, “Why bother to carpool? The outreach to other parents is tricky and it’s hard to keep track of who is driving. Before going through the trouble of organizing, I’d rather quickly jump in the car and drive my child.” Here are three of my personal reasons to carpool – I know everyone has a story and I would love to hear yours!
1. The driving adds up – time on the road is unproductive for me
Even when I think of a “quick” drive to school, that 10 minute ride is more likely going to be 15 minutes one way (I easily wait 5 minutes or more in front of the school to drop off the child). Add in the return trip and we’re at 30 minutes. For pick up, same routine, so I’m at one hour for two rides on one day that I could have shared with others. We did our own research at GoKid confirming these numbers. The average family spends one hour per day driving, and many are closer to two hours when they have three children or more. Many families reported that they put around 20,000 miles a year on their car – just by driving their kids!! Let’s think of something more fun and productive to do: going to the gym, cooking, or even reading to your other child who only sits in the car to ride along.
2. Carpooling creates friendships and communities
When we first moved to the suburbs we spent the first year driving our kids to school and their after school activities alone. I didn’t meet many of my neighbors or even other parents and frankly felt a bit isolated after having lived in New York City for almost eight years where I would meet many people over the course of a day. Once a neighbor in my community reached out to carpool for the early morning rides to orchestra, things changed: I started talking to her and I got to know her kids. We shared stories about school, and started asking each other for advice. Our group grew to five families who we now carpool with regularly. Among these reasons to carpool: overhearing the conversations that our children have with each other tells us so much more than sitting alone with them in a car, trying to find out how their day at school was. Similarly, my children now have a closer relationship their friends’ moms and dads, simply by being comfortable around them. After three years in my new community in Connecticut I feel comfortable reaching out to anyone in my carpool group – even for non-carpool emergencies. It takes a village to raise a kid!
3. Teaching kids values: Going green starts with your own behavior
Coming from Europe, we learned as kids to turn off the light when leaving the room, to recycle, and never to show up at a grocery store without our own bags. We had to take the bike to school (a three-mile ride each way) and generally also had to walk a lot. I’m glad to see our children being taught the effects of climate change at school, but sometimes actions speak louder than words, and we simply need to demonstrate that being friendly to the earth means sharing resources. While we now also own two cars, I resist when one of my daughters asks whether I can pick her up from school, and we start talking about the energy that is being used by buses, and by cars. Changing behaviors is difficult, but it starts one family at a time. Our vision at GoKid is to substantially eliminate single occupied vehicles.
Please share with us your reason to carpool – we’d love to publish your experience.
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