CarpoolNewMexico.com to Put Brakes on Accelerating Commute Costs

SANTA FE, NM; September 21, 2005 – Business professionals and college students throughout New Mexico are looking for the perfect mates—but only to share their daily commutes. CarpoolNewMexico.com launched this week as a free resource to connect New Mexico commuters hoping to share a ride to and from work or school—as well as gas costs.

Driven by rising fuel prices increasing their own commute costs, New Mexico entrepreneurs Ray Gulick and Kim Melson, co-owners of Evolution Web Development, created a free Web site that allows commuters to search for potential carpool mates and make contact anonymously.

The site represents a greater ambition on the part of its creators: changing how commuters in America think about getting to and from work.

"Attitudes about commuting have to change over the next few years," said Gulick, himself a daily 47-mile roundtrip commuter. "We cannot continue to waste petroleum driving to and from work in one-and-a-half-ton vehicles carrying one occupant. And at more than $3 per gallon, there's some pressure for a shift in attitude toward carpooling."

But the Web site doesn't preach at commuters. Instead, it offers a simple calculator to allow drivers to determine how much sharing a ride can save them on a monthly basis. For example, the Albuquerque/Santa Fe commute, a daily trek for many New Mexicans, can cost commuters about $18/day for fuel, which adds up to about $360 a month or $4,000 a year.

"People with daily commutes of 20 miles or more are surprised at how much they could save if they drove two or three days a week rather than five," Gulick noted. "In the U.S., we value the independence that comes with driving by ourselves, but it's a luxury that's becoming less and less affordable. And with global warming resulting primarily from the burning of fossil fuels, it's a luxury that's increasingly harder to defend."

The heart of the site is its growing database of users, who can search for and contact potential carpool mates anonymously, and respond anonymously to queries from users who contact them. Because the site's creators feel it is important that people are able to protect their identity when making contact with someone they don't know, the only contact information displayed by the system is a user alias. At some point, users can decide it's time to arrange a meeting with a prospective carpool mate or end the contact.

Under development, but not yet available on the Web site, is a calendar-based carpool management system, which will facilitate carpool scheduling and communication. Aimed at New Mexican commuters, CarpoolNewMexico.com also serves as the beta test site for a network of carpool websites that will serve the largest commuting markets in the U.S.

To make it easy to carpool, use of the site is free. "Whatever support we get for the service will come from advertising and donations," Gulick said. "Our challenge is to get the word out that the service is available to help commuters who have better things to spend money on than gasoline. And it would also be cool if I could find someone to share a ride with."

Evolution Web Development, LLC has offices in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and also serves Albuquerque and the southwestern states. The company develops and implements web-based, database driven business solutions.