GREEN GIRL AT THE WATER COOLER: WHO YOU CALLING A SLUG?
Green Girls, I think I’m dying of dehydration. I can’t keep going to the water cooler anymore. Every time I meander over there, all I hear is “OMG, it cost me $45 to fill up my tank, and I wasn’t even all the way on empty!” I don’t want to hear it because I know it’s true. It’s cast a grayish pallor over the office…no more jaunts to the favorite coffee spot, no special lunch treks. It’s finally happened.
After figuring out my finances this month – I actually thought something was wrong with my calculator or
else my truly horrendous math skillz were catching up to me. I looked at my monthly expenditure on…gas. I don’t know about you Green Girls, but spending 5-7%% of our salaries on gas is just not do-able anymore. I know everyone hears about this on the local news like every 15 minutes – I know I do. I just never thought it would catch up to me so quickly. All the talking heads are bantering words about like “carpooling,” “metro” and even “biking to work.” Yah, you’ve heard them.
All this is said like it’s no problem whatsoever. Easy peasy. Whut-ever. Unless you live in a compact city with a highly evolved public transit system – this is no easy task. What if you live in an urban sprawl? In a rural part of the country? And many employers – and I’ve actually heard these nameless people say – “Why don’t you just carpool with so-and-so? You live so close to each other.”
Or “Hop on a bus!” Sure. No problem. For me that would be 5 buses later and a not-so-little hike.
People…giving up the car in a sprawling city like Los Angeles would be like giving up stilettos – forever. I might as well start wearing nude colored nylons with Reeboks a-la “Working Girl.” Me and Melanie Griffith.
And what if you have plans right after work (gosh forbid) or what if you needed to stay late to finish a project? Have kids? Trying to make your yoga class? Gulp – have a date and are not heading in that direction after work? What then? Basically, we’ve created lives based on ye old car.
According to Forbes recent rating of the 10 worst cities in the U.S. for commuting Los Angeles came in
9th – that’s encouraging, I think. Atlanta beat us out for the number one spot. They cited that the “worst commutes were those that ate up the most hours and were the least reliable. The best commutes were in cities with short, dependable treks to the office, where fellow commuters efficiently use transit options to reduce congestion.”
I personally would consider seriously rearranging my social calendar and saving money. According to Rideshare.com and the according to the AAA, it costs an average of 54.1 cents per mile to drive a car as of 2008. This includes gasoline, oil, maintenance, tires, and depreciation. For a 40-mile round-trip commute, this comes to $21.64 per day, $454 monthly, and $5453 annually.” Wow.
So the other buzz around the water cooler that’s just now starting to filter west from D.C. is slugging. Which I guess is carpool 2.0 – you’re not just carpooling with people you know from work, but people in your area. And it comes with almost “Fight Club” type rules i.e. no talking unless the driver initiates conversation, no open windows unless all passengers approve, the driver has full control of the radio; passengers may not request a station or volume change, etc. Although this system makes sense, it’s a little like internet dating. How do you know your carpool isn’t creepy? Are your carpool buddies insured?
I’m checking it out:
eRideshare.com – according to Yahoo!, the most popular ridesharing site, anonymous emails until a
match occurs and then you exchange info with your carpoolers directly
Car-Pool.PickupPal.com - a global eco-friendly transportation revolution that connects drivers, passengers, and packages with the places they need to go. It’s sort of like eBay and you bid and pay the driver.
iCarpool.com – links to Facebook.com and you exchange personal info with your carpool matches directly
DividetheRide.com – a carpool planning service, you choose the families you want to participate with, secure, free, geared more towards families and kids activities i.e. soccer matches
MyCarpoolStation.com - supplies web-based, community-run carpool stations to every school, workplace, and region in the U.S. and Canada, free
But I didn’t find anything about how to screen drivers to see if they’re insured, psycho or what – did I miss something? Are any of you participating in any of these programs? Let me know.
And finally, employers – can we take a little cue from companies like Clif Bar offering incentives to
employees to live greener lives, both inside and outside the office – i.e. the car. Now I know every employer can’t afford green incentive programs for employees, but here are some amazing and innovative ones that I think every company with more than 10 employees could emulate, at least in part. Clif Bar offers employees who walk, bicycle, or carpool to work can earn as much as $700 a year in rewards, tax free and a forgivable loan program of up to $5000 to help employees purchase a hybrid or biodiesel car. Those who stay with the company for a certain period of time do not have to pay back the loan.
Not every company has to offer cash incentives, however some are starting to offer one telecommute day per week. What does your employer offer in terms of green incentives for commuting? How are you making it work? Let me know…let all of us know. You know what to do! Email me at askgigi@greengirlguide.com
If green is the new black, shouldn't you know what you're wearing?
