Team-BHP - Car Pooling

Hi guys,
I ride my Pulsar to work from near HAL airport to ITPL everyday (sometimes with my colleague). Most of the time, I reach office with my head pounding cos of Bangalore's fresh air!! Along the way, I notice that 90% of the 4 wheelers have only one occupant in them. And in most of the cases where I see 2 people in the car, the owner is usually at the back seat reading the morning newspaper or typing away to glory on his laptop and the driver sitting in the front trying to squeeze the car into any available inch of space. I think often about the car pooling concept that is so dominant in other countries but quite extinct here in humara Hindustan (or at least in namma Bengalooru). If carpooling can be encouraged, it will help in decongesting our roads to a certain extent.... I know that there will be issues to iron out during the car pooling scenario like the office timings, etc, but I guess most of it can be sorted out.

I feel that team-bhp can do something about this. If we BHPians can kick start this trend, I am sure it will gradually catch on..... I heard there was a Yahoo! groups for car pooling in Bangalore, but then, it was only for the fairer sex....

So let's take some initative and try to get this going! What say guys?!

(P.S: I am game for carpooling from HAL/Kemp Fort to ITPL/Whitefield and back!!!)

As much as I do appreciate the idea , I dont think it will work wonders with the bangy bhpians atleast .. Often on drives , most cars have drivers who consider carrying a navi is also additional weight and hence will slow down your straight line speed etc rl:etc ..

Wish to see this being implemented though , atleast that way we will get an oppurtunity to take our cars out during the day time than waiting for midnight to get some heat in their bodies ( i mean the cars )..

My advise is to use company transport if available. Reduces traffic to a larger extent when company transport is used.
5 of us(colleagues) used to car pool and we all have started using the company bus for daily commute.One car is off the road now.

Now the scene is even better where-in most people have
opted for company transport and sure have seen the number of cars in the parking lot reduced.

What makes me say this is that ,there have been days when I haven't been able to find a parking slot in the campus. These days most people drive personal cars only on Fridays to office.

BTW I work in e-city and wonder if the roads to ITPL handle traffic anywhere close to e-city roads ?

Quote:

Originally Posted by mclaren1885 (Post 434822)

.. Often on drives , most cars have drivers who consider carrying a navi is also additional weight and hence will slow down your straight line speed etc rl:etc ..

Well we do this to Stumpy here alone.. Considering the fact he is putting on weight like there is no tomorrow.. Looking at him i definately know where the phrase "Live for Today" actually originated from.
His additional weight will do more than slow you down.. Probably break the suspensions also.. I heard a rumour that "Tein" is designing a suspension for BigFoot and once tested it can probably carry Stumpy..lol:

This is a great idea.. Sadly i will not be a part of this.. work in 3 different shifts and your office is a staggering 30 min+ more drive for me.

Godfather

Car pooling does exist in bangalore but has not caught on the fancy of too many people. Given below is the link to the yahoo group for Bangalore car pooling

carpool-bangalore : Carpooling for Bangalore, India Save money, natural non-renewable resource, pollution, stress, traffic jams, parking problems

Visit. Commute Easy - Carpool / Bikepool for Bangalore, Pune :Welcome.

I really tried below options though

1. Using company transport ( Well, discontinued because of the timings)
2. Two wheeler ( Discontinued Too dangerous)
3. BMTC ( Volvo/ BTS - Connection is a problem)
4. Four wheeler (Currently solo)

No matter how good the idea sounds I have found it to be impractical, there was oncea time when I used to stay with 4 guys all of us owrking in same company, though we had two wheelers none of us could do even bike pooling. At the most we had common timings fot going to office but coming back from office is a big problem, as each has different timings also more often than not the car\bike owner might have to go to some place leaving others to find an alternative.

Like others suggested best is to use company transport if available.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Technocrat (Post 434995)

I think car pool doesn't work for too long. Company transport is best pick these days. I remember car pooling to most effective was in a manufacturing unit 40kms away from city into the hills. There were fixed work hours.
So no hassles.

Quote:

car\bike owner might have to go to some place leaving others to find an alternative

This was also a rare scenario because he has to come back to town driving 40kms. So they preferred to do it only after work hours or off days.

Even I have tried to do car pooling for about 2-3 months. But it fizzled out soon for the same reasons what Technokrat mentioned.

Can manage to get people together for onward trip, but while returning it became painful, espcially since we work in IT industry there is no fixed time for return due to various reasons like conf calls, project emergencies etc. Still I manage with one guy who works with me in the same project. But all others who were in different projects dropped out.

Is there any way we can have a separate link on team-bhp on car pooling. The link will give a comprehensive view of the number of team-bhp members willing to car-pool. A person wanting to pool car will register and then select the roads he wishes o car pool. Forums not working, it never works, last post on this forum was 2007. Repeated forums doesnt help either. please: We can also form teams who will take initiative at their respective cities, encouraging companies to reserve parking spaces for car poolers.