In a place like Vermont with a mile-wide green streak you would think that carpooling would be common-place, right? Lots of crunchy granola-people sharing rides, saving gas, money, carbon, and possibly feeling some intrinsic warm-fuzzies. But alas, almost every car on the road has a single-driver, and usually chatting on a cell phone. That’s why I agreed to join last week when one of my colleages, Amy, offered to drive three of us from the same village to work and back home. Each one of us has an average commute of about 25 minutes. So why in this green paradise do we see so few people sharing rides?

Here are a few reasons:

1. Privacy: Nosey colleagues now have more access to your personal information.

2. Personal Safety Issues: What if one of your carpoolers is really a serial killer?

3. Increased Pollution: Overloading a car decreases gas mileage.

4. Too Much Shop Talk Leads to Mental Imbalances: Enough said.

5. Tardiness: Invariably, the person driving is late, or the riders are late and then everyone is late and they lose their jobs.

6. Personal Hygeine Problems: When you are sitting shoulder-to-shoulder in a Corolla, all of a sudden that garlic sandwich you had for breakfast doesn’t seem like a great choice. Or maybe it’s the mouth watering, windpipe-clogging chemical bath disguised as exotic parfum. Anyway, you get the idea.

So, by now you are wondering how did it go?

Well, it was very uneventful. Everyone was ready to depart and ready to return on schedule. No one asked any embarrassing questions, there were no serial killers to be found, mental imbalances that I could see and even though I was ready to breathe through my mouth at the slightest hint of “Eau de Toilette”, I didn’t detect any poisonous odors. It was a success. There you have it. I think we might try it again! Do yu car pool? If not, what would it take to get you to give it a try?