A gender fender mind-bender 12

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1. 

   amc89 Posted 2:53 am
   25 Jul 2007

   Interesting observationI think your observation is probably correct with 90% of the time.
   For me, its unimaginable why anybody would not want to carpool (assuming you don't loath the potential carpool mate).  Good for environment, cheaper, less stressful, hello????  Even when I was in highschool, when gas was still pretty cheap, I was always trying to organize carpooling.

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2. 

   gmunger Posted 3:09 am
   25 Jul 2007

   inconvenient?The strongest and most frequent objection I hear from most folks I know to carpooling, public transit, etc. is inconvenience. I might suggest that catastrophic climate change would be a tad more inconvenient.
   If there is a male gender-based bias against car pooling, it's news to this male. My blue-color, factory worker father car pooled. And he had definite ideas about traditional gender roles and such.

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3. 

   mleonard Posted 3:57 am
   25 Jul 2007

   Casual CarpoolsI haven't seen it outside of the San Francisco area - but here we have a popular program called "casual carpool". It's largely unofficially run, though gets at least verbal support from some transit agencies.
   Basically, traffic is horrible, and to cross the Bay Bridge and go into San Francisco costs $4. If you carpool, you cross faster and skip the toll. There are dozens of "casual carpool" locations where people just wait on the sidewalk, and drivers pull up, the first people in line hop in, and everyone wins. Riders get a free ride across the bay (and don't have to pay the train/bus fees), and drivers save $4 in tolls and skip traffic.
   It's a great system and experiment in socialization. There are some weird "norms" where talking is discouraged unless the driver initiates, and a "neutral" radio is expected such as NPR. But overall, it's a simple method that requires ZERO infrastructure or institutional resources to work, and it's pretty functional.
   My TOTAL casual observation is that more women than men use this system, but I admittedly don't use it much.
   -Matt

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4. 

   AAAdriver Posted 4:07 am
   25 Jul 2007

   GishiGo - convenient websiteOne way to cut commute cost and get some cars off the city streets (without a tax) is to carpool. There's a great website called www.GishiGo.com It does a lot the "free and anonymous" social networks avoid. The website helps people find each other and exchange identity using PayPal. And it creates a paper-trail and bunch of other good stuff. I use it all the time. And I use the social networks like Craigslist and Kijiji and MySpace. The more people who see my GishiGo rideshare post the more likely I will have successful carpool. And it helps me build confidence. That's the real issue. GishiGo.com seems really good to me. There are a bunch of other websites, but this GishiGo is very powerful network design and only one that is so convenient to me. No annoying registration. Open to anyone who isn't fearful of exchanging their identity (which is exactly appropriate for carpool). Most of the effort to build confidence in the rideshare is free. Just use your head. Make a few phone calls.
   
   
   
   
   
   www.GishiGo.com
   
   
   

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5. 

   Holly Richmond Posted 5:04 am
   25 Jul 2007

   in appreciation of Wroth's narrative powersFascinating.  Also, 'Fella and Friend' would make a great title for a children's book series with TV spin-off potential.

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6. 

   Matt G Posted 5:23 am
   25 Jul 2007

   InterestingI wonder if it's more about power.  What I'd hate about carpooling with an acquaintence would be having work-late options.  Often things come up where you just need to work a bit late.  Carpooling with my wife, this isn't a huge issue - she'll work late to compensate, and I do the same when she needs to work late.  But asking someone who isn't a very good friend to do that on a continual basis would seem far too rude.  And having to leave at a particular time every day, no matter what, just isn't an option in many occupations.
   Of course, if there's an alternate way home (bus, etc) this isn't an issue.  And I can't specifically link this to gender, but perhaps there's a link (men more often in have-to-work-late roles?  women less afraid to ask for favors?  men have less tolerance for uncertainty?).

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7. 

   Bart Anderson Posted 9:00 am
   25 Jul 2007

   Cars - our breeding plumageI think you're on to something Katharine. Owning cars has deep roots in our psyches (at least for males).  Cars are much more than a form of transportation.
   Getting your own car is a puberty rite, symbolizing independence.  It helps in attracting and winning girlfriends.  When I was courting my first wife, her family let it be known that if I were really serious I would buy a car... which I did, a '56 Chevy.
   Later I went without cars for years at a time. Let me tell you, it's not easy to stand up to the social pressures.
   Cars announce to the world your status and view of yourself. Hummer - Prius - Subaru - family van - sports car: each of these conveys a message.  To change your identity, just buy a new car. If you're undergoing male menopause, get a motorcycle.
   Advertisements and popular culture pound home the message, again and again.  
   For most of my life, cars have appeared in my dreams - despite the fact that I really don't like them. It doesn't take much psychological acumen to interpret them as symbols of power and control over one's life.
   All of this would be amusing, if it weren't for the harm that cars do. Somehow, we're going to have to develop better ways to assert power and status.  
   Related: Sex sells, but at what cost? (BBC) "Sex sells" is the mantra of advertisers, but our fixation with status symbols and material wealth is undermining our efforts to tackle climate change, argues Matt Prescott.
   
   Bart
   
   
   Energy Bulletin

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8. 

   JMG Posted 3:24 pm
   25 Jul 2007

   Good eyeYes, in the US, males aren't socialized to play well with each other; they are too busy establishing and maintaining the hierarchical relationship (the pecking order, although that's a female hierarchy) to do things like carpool willingly.  
   When standing and waiting to cross the street at stoplights, I've gotten into a habit of counting how many single-adult vehicles go by between cars with more than one adult.  (Most days the answer doesn't change much even if you allow kids to count as a second person.)  I've never reached 100 -- I've frequently reached 50, occasionally 75, and a couple times 80.
   In the overwhelming majority of cases a car with two adults has either multiple women, or a man and a woman (in rare cases two of each).  The only cars you see with multiple "men" are adolescent males (all same race), or several young men of color.  
   White guys apparently would rather die than give up that status and control that comes with a driver's seat when the other person is another male.
   When I was in the service I had the opportunity to observe this same thing in hugely male-dominated environments:  hundreds, sometimes thousands of cars all proceeding from the same housing areas to the same duty stations along the same roads, nearly every one with a fully worked out explanation for why carpooling couldn't possibly work for them.  The one socially acceptable reason for carpooling was that your latest DUI had cost you your license.
   Note how chary the average US male is about letting "her" drive, even in her car in many instances!  The passenger seat is apparently tied in with a lot of emasculation fears in the US.
   But hey, this weird cultural artifact is nothing if not functional--you sell a LOT more cars this way, don't you?  And once you tie every earner to a device that demands constant inflow of money, he's much easier to control.  Cars are the perfect Orwellian control devices -- you sell them as providing freedom and power, and you can persuade people not to notice how much freedom and power they've given up to maintain the image.
   
   Save the world: Reduce greenhouse gas emissions 5% annually.

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9. 

   Delay And Deny Posted 6:12 pm
   25 Jul 2007

   Hey, That's My Seat Back There!
   
   Driving is manly, but getting laid in the back of a cab is even more so.
   That's why I strongly advocate the use of Texxi's and other shared, socially networked, jitneys:
   http://texxi.com/pro/texxiinf.nsf/pages/home
   
   John Bailo
   
   
   Supratext:

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10. 

    michaelfs Posted 1:25 am
    26 Jul 2007

    Sorry to burst your bubble, but...The 2005 American Community Survey (from the Census Bureau) shows that men in the U.S. actually carpool at a higher rate than women (12.7% of all male car commuters carpool vs. 11.6% of female car commuters
    
    [+/- 0.1%]) This figure accounts for the higher proportion of men in the workforce.
    Sounds like you're dealing with some pretty ornery dudes.
    Also the term "casual commuter" that mleonard highlighted is called "slugging" in the DC area and is fairly common there around HOV lanes.

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11. 

    mihan Posted 1:42 am
    26 Jul 2007

    the onionSenate Carpool 'Forgets' To Pick Up Feingold Again

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12. 

    Corey McKrill Posted 5:48 am
    26 Jul 2007

    hollywoodClearly the next James Bond movie needs to depict 007 being suave on a road bike or a metro bus...
    
    Frequently asked technical questions about Grist's newsletters and website.

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