Carpooling certainly isn’t a bad way to save money on gas and go green at the same time. But carpooling can be somewhat frustrating. If your designated driver decides to bail out on picking you up, then what’s next for you?

Transportation is about convenience. Our public transportation system, CyRide, strives to increase their ridership by adding more convenience to their service. It’s how you have to win over customers. There are people who proactively change their lifestyle and schedules to get full benefit out of the transit system that saves them money while also going green.

I’m no go-green expert, but I do try and save money where I can without hurting the environment. Most students and residents in Ames still drive their cars by themselves. Certainly there are those who will drive to a commuter lot and then use public transportation or just use public transportation during the times convenient to them.

We can make little changes to save money while commuting, but that doesn’t last long at all. If we can’t stick to eating healthy, how are we going to stick to commuting in a healthy way, both to our pockets and the environment? We can all do better.

Time to start sharing a car through a company called Zipcar. The service they provide (Zipcar.com) would add to the convenience for commuting in a way that saves us money and helps out the environment. By sharing a car, you can get rid of your car entirely for some extra cash, spend less gas money, or utilize more of the public transportation when needed.

Zipcar states that “each and every Zipcar takes at least 15 personally owned vehicles off the road.” Additionally, it stated in relation to saving money that “Zipcar members save more than $500 (vs. car ownership).”

Imagine seeing parking sections on campus and throughout the Ames community that say “For Zipcar Owners.” This could certainly bring an end to any frustration with the parking at Iowa State. Furthermore, you could take the CyRide to the nearest Zipcar parking space where a car dedicated to you is awaiting for your enjoyment. It’s almost like this sharing-a-car service was born to serve us students, faculty and every other community member in the Ames community.

Both the Ames community and Iowa State would need to be on board to offer this service that saves money and promotes the mission and lifestyle of going green to its users. Surely, not everyone will want to use this service. However, those who want an option that offers freedom, ease of use and a way to fully take advantage of CyRide will love sharing a car.

I love driving my car and being able to go to a place whenever I want to with ease. The problem arises when the time has come to save money and there are cheaper alternatives to getting from point A to point B and C.

Lastly, think about saving $500 a month because you are using this service that offers both low daily and weekly rates for provided gas and insurance.

And you thought you were living the ultimate convenience when commuting. Think again and share a car.

Since you don’t see the service in Ames yet, you can request the service to come here by visiting this link.