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Essay / The advantages of carpooling over individual driving
Table of contentsTraditional practices followedThe future of carpooling Is there a lesson here for the future? ConclusionTraditional Practices FollowedCarpooling, also called carpooling, is the sharing of car journeys so that several people travel in one car, saving time, traffic problems, pollution and limiting to one car moving to the same place. By allowing more people to use a single vehicle, carpooling reduces the cost per person during the trip, which includes fuel costs, tolls as well as the added stress of driving. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Carpooling is also a more environmentally friendly, more compatible and more sustainable means of transport, as it reduces air pollution, traffic congestion on the roads and the need for parking areas. Carpooling is an important asset in the event of fuel price inflation or high pollution. It is also a good way to maximize the total capacity of a car that remains unused when fewer people use car facilities. In 2009, carpooling accounted for 43.5% of all trips in the United States and 10% of commutes. The majority of home-work trips (more than 60%) are “family pools” bringing together family members. Furthermore, Delhi Chief Minister Mr. Arvind Kejriwal implemented the odd-even concept to reduce the pollution level in the national capital. The program stipulates that cars with odd numbers would run one day while cars with even numbers would run every other day. Carpooling is more popular for those who work in places with more jobs nearby and live in places with higher population density. However, the carpooling system is not friendly to the elderly or those who spend most of their time at work, the owners. The Future of Carpooling In today's world, commuting in big cities is nothing short of a headache. Roads, which are supposed to reduce the temporal distance between places, are bleeding under the load of traffic due to the increasing number of vehicles plying on them. Every year, the density of vehicles on the roads continues to increase, with 245 cars per km of road in Delhi according to a 2015 survey. The number of registered vehicles in Delhi has almost tripled from 2.2 million in 1994 to 7.6 million, a growth rate of 14% per year. Due to the large number of cars plying on the roads, vehicular pollution is considered a major source of air pollution, which has been ranked among the top ten health risks faced by human beings worldwide. Delhi, the capital of India, has the sad honor of being regularly cited as the most polluted city in the world, with air pollution causing thousands of additional deaths in one year in this growing megacity. Is there a lesson here for the future? What worries us most is our planet's declining capacity to protect itself from human impacts. Look at the new problems that have emerged: the hole in the ozone layer, acid rain, global warming. This fact alone is alarming enough for us to step out of our comfort zone and do something for the environment. However, no matter what initiatives we take to make our car engines more environmentally friendly, we fail to achieve this..