Dictionary:
car·pool (kär'pūl') 
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| Word Origin: carpool |
The original car pool was an invention of World War II. On the home front, gasoline, along with many other scarce items, was being rationed. An automobile was a luxury, to say the least. Driving to and from work alone was frowned upon. But you could serve the war effort if you joined a car pool and shared rides and driving with others. Reader's Digest used the term in 1942: "I don't believe I care for anything, thank you. I'm just in their car pool." McCall's the next year remarked, "On a master map of the city car pools are plotted."
After the war, attitudes about driving relaxed, and for a while there was little more to say about car pools. But along with increasing concern for the environment, carpool became a verb, first attested in the National Review for May 22, 1962: "You have to proceed to the consideration of the relative values of carpooling with large or small families."
And in the oil crisis of the 1970s, everyone was concerned about carpooling. In 1973, the Environmental Protection Agency urged "much greater use of car pooling and mass transportation just about everywhere." In 1974, the New York Times joked, "The Government should encourage bundling as a night-time fuel-saving equivalent to carpooling." There was also the new name carpooler (1972) for someone who would "carpool it" (1973) to work or play.
Nowadays, to expedite travel for carpoolers, some highways use express lanes and diamond lanes (1976). The latter are traffic lanes marked with large diamonds to signify that they are prohibited to those driving alone. To ease the way into joining a car pool signs along highways encourage people to call services which match riders and drivers.
| WordNet: car pool |
The noun has one meaning:
Meaning #1:
a small group of car drivers who arrange to take turns driving while the others are passengers
| Wikipedia: Carpool |
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Carpooling (also known as car-sharing, ride-sharing, lift-sharing and covoiturage), is the shared use of a car by the driver and one or more passengers, usually for commuting. Carpooling arrangements and schemes involve varying degrees of formality and regularity. Formal carpool projects have been around in a structured form since the mid-1970s.
Carpoolers use pool members' private cars, or a jointly hired vehicle, for private shared journeys. The vehicle is not used in a general public transport capacity such as in car sharing, share taxis or taxicabs. Carpooling is also distinct from the use of a company/government or private vehicle by several pool members but at different times, for economic or other reasons, such as in a military motor pool, but might involve single occupancy.
Carpooling reduces the costs involved in repetitive or long distance driving by sharing cars, sharing rental charges, or paying the main car owner. Some countries have introduced high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes to encourage carpooling and use of public transport, to combat rising traffic congestion. In wartime, carpooling was encouraged to save oil. In reducing the number of cars on the road, carpooling decreases pollution and the need for parking space, and in a global perspective, reduces greenhouse gas emissions. Shared driving carpooling can also reduce driving stress. A form of ad-hoc carpooling between strangers is called Slugging. No money changes hands, but a mutual benefit still exists between the driver and passenger(s) making the practice worthwhile.
In some cases, companies or local authorities will introduce facilities to encourage private carpooling, often as part of wider transport programs. These can include central listing facilities, defined pick-up points, preferential parking and general advice. This has increased through use of the Internet, mobile phones and other software support systems. A third party rideshare agency may also provide services to enable one off or regular carpooling in defined areas. In the "dynamic ridesharing" concept, a separate system performs a carpool match automatically for approval by the travelers.
Inflexibility in carpooling can arise in accommodating en-route stops or changes to working times/patterns. Some larger carpools offer 'sweeper services' with later running options. A further backup can also be a 'guaranteed ride home' arrangement with a local taxi company.
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Copyrights:
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 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Word Origin. America in So Many Words, by David K.Barnhart and Allan A. Metcalf. Copyright © 1997 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| WordNet. WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Carpool". Read more |
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