Reidsville woman urges her neighbors to share the ride

Doris Melvin sees them daily on the 22-mile drive from her Reidsville home to her downtown Greensboro office.

“Every morning I see tons of people driving to work and there’s always just one person in that car,” she said. “And they’re people I recognize who live in Reidsville or Eden. I thought, we all live in the same area and work in the same city, why can’t some of us start riding together?”

With no wallet relief in sight at the gas pump, Melvin has started wondering why all those empty car seats are going to waste.

The state Employment Security Commission estimates that out of the Rockingham County labor force of 45,310 people, more than 16,000 commute to jobs outside the county. ECC manager Gordon Allen said this has historically been a commute-heavy county, even before industry moved overseas. He said that fact makes the higher price of gas especially hurtful inside Rockingham County.

“The increase wouldn’t have been so troublesome, but it went up so fast,” Allen said. “It happened so quickly the average person couldn’t absorb the cost. It was just a sudden shock.”
While Melvin knew she and others want to carpool, finding each other is a bit difficult.

“Of the people I talked to that I knew, no one wanted to do it,” she said. “They all said, ‘I don’t think it’d work. I just don’t want to wait five minutes for you to get to the parking deck, or drive five minutes to come pick you up.’”

Five minutes was a small inconvenience to Melvin, who realized the potential savings if more folks begin sharing car space.

“Most people are like me. They get to work at eight, and they’re there until five,” Melvin said. “It’s a five- or 10-minute walk to the parking deck to get to my car, and that’s five or 10 minutes taken out of my lunch hour. That doesn’t count the time it’d take to get back to my desk later. It’s just quicker for me to stay in.”

The N.C. Department of Transportation distributed a news release pointing interested commuters to its Web site, sharetheridenc.org. The site connects drivers living and working in the same areas who want to save money by sharing transportation space and costs. According to the release, 1,784 carpools were born because of the site.

AAA Carolinas chimed in with its carpooling recommendation recently. To keep transportation costs down, AAA recommends alternatives such as ride sharing and public transportation. In rural areas, AAA said anyone riding to work in an otherwise empty car is a prime candidate for carpooling.

Carol Gifford, a spokeswoman for AAA Carolinas, said there are plenty of advantages to carpooling beyond monetary savings.

“I used to carpool for about five years and that was a very big deal to the people who carpooled,” Gifford said. “For the people not driving, that’s a little extra personal time. You can sleep during the ride there. Some people did work to catch up or get ahead early and some people read or did something for enjoyment.”

Those minutes usually devoted to watching the road can otherwise be used for other activities for the people not driving. For the person at the wheel, it still means they don’t stand alone against high gas prices.

Though Melvin said she heard about sharetheridenc.org lately through local news outlets, her success with the site stalled.

Melvin said she knew the sites worked for some people, but not enough Rockingham County residents had signed up for them to be useful.

“I signed up and found two or three matches with people from the area who wanted to car pool, but when I tried contacting them they either no longer worked there or weren’t interested anymore,” Melvin said.

So, instead of frustration getting the better of her, Melvin decided to do it herself. The hardest part is just getting the word out.

“I know there’s lots of people interested, I just don’t know where to look. I’d be willing to organize a group. I could take information and match people up around the county if they want to,” Melvin said.
Gifford said folks starting their own carpool should cover a few ground rules. Decide who will drive and how often, where to meet, how much each person contributes for gas and vehicle safety.

“One thing I’d tell anyone starting out in carpooling is personal safety,” Gifford said. “You need to make sure everyone feels secure with the vehicle they’re riding in, and they need to make sure the driver is safe and doesn’t have any major traffic violations.”

Gifford even suggests doing a practice run for a week or two to see if carpooling with a particular group will work before committing for the long term. She said people like Melvin will soon start finding they hardly mind a few more minutes’ wait for coworkers where there is so much to gain.

Melvin is just hoping more people begin thinking about how much the empty seats around them actually cost.

“I think this would be a great way to save a little and do something good,” she said.

Melvin wants to hear from any potential carpoolers – e-mail at .

Staff writer Heather J. Smith can be reached at or 623-2155, ext. 15.