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Propaganda poster from the United States government urging carpooling during World War II

Carpooling (also known as car-sharing, ride-sharing, lift-sharing), is the shared use of a car, especially for commuting to work, often by people who each have a car but travel together to save cost and to promote other socio-environmental benefits. In some locations, there are special facilities intended to encourage carpooling such as designated pick-up points and high-occupancy vehicle lanes which only allow cars with multiple riders at certain times of the day.

Carpool projects have been around in a structured form since the mid-1970s and have recently begun to more extensively use the Internet and other software support systems. With the recent advent of mobile phones and SMS, there is a push to integrate these technologies into more flexible systems on the internet.

• Carpool participants save money by sharing the cost of driving one car. Driving one car saves on gasoline, tolls, parking and vehicle maintenance.
• Carpool lane available.
• Carpools decongest roads.
• Carpools reduce pollution and carbon dioxide emissions thereby reducing global warming.
• Carpools reduces driving-related stress for participants who are not driving on a specific ride. The participants take turns sharing their vehicles and driving with others.
• Carpools may provide social connections in an increasingly disconnected society. New online carpooling services are offering new ways to make social connections through discussion sites and custom ridesharing services.
• Some larger carpools offer "sweeper services" of late pick-up options for people having to stay longer at work. One form of backup is a "guaranteed ride home" arrangement with a local taxi company.
• There are designated carpool lanes on highways (usually called High-Occupancy Vehicle, or HOV lanes), which may make travel faster. Some businesses offer premier parking for carpoolers, and finding a spot to park one car is always easier than finding a spot for more.
• In the "dynamic ridesharing" concept the system does one-to-one matching automatically, and all that both, the driver and passenger have to do is accept the match done by the system.

• Drivers carry the additional burden of potential legal action from passengers in case of an accident.
• When carpooling, it becomes difficult to run errands on the way to and from the common locations.
• Tends to be complicated to reliably organize and is difficult to maintain, due to changing travel patterns and needs. One approach to remedy this problem has been implemented by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority; signs mark locations outside of their metro stops and large bus stations where drivers can share rides with other passengers in an orderly fashion.^[1]

• Car sharing
• Hitchhiking
• New Mobility Agenda
• Public transportation
• Rota (schedule)
• Shared transport
• Slugging
• Sustainable transportation
• When You Ride Alone You Ride with bin Laden

• Rideshare Directory - Comprehensive list of carpool and rideshare resources.
• The Kind Ride Share - Got a ride? Need a ride? Get hooked up! Free Ride Shaing Program
• Definitions and benefits of carpooling/ridesharing
• Carpool / Rideshare Advocacy Group - Traffic Bulldog
• study on future, dynamic ridesharing services
• Share your car with your family or your neighbors
• The world's first Web 2.0 carpool communication service