While carpooling has always been cool (who doesn’t love saving money, time and the environment?), it’s safe to say that Uber and Lyft have overhauled the concept of ride-sharing. Once left to the coordination efforts of neighbors, coworkers and soccer moms, carpooling experienced an evolution in 2015.
The introduction of Lyft Line and UberPool meant that users of these popular apps could now share rides and split fares by riding with another user headed in the same direction. Carpooling and using these apps not only saves money, but decreases traffic congestion, commute times and greenhouse gas emissions by taking cars off the road.
Lauren Faber, of the Environmental Defense Fund, believes that “Services such as Lyft Line offer unprecedented opportunities for consumers to share rides, reduce the need for more vehicles on the road and [curb] air pollutants harmful to human health and the environment.”
The analysts at FindTheHome wanted to examine this ride-sharing trend and find the carpool capitals of the U.S. Using the most recent data from the American Community Survey (2014 estimates), they looked at cities larger than 30,000 people and found the top 20 cities with the highest percentages of working-age people who carpool to work.
Note: Working-age includes people ages 16 and older.
No. 10 Springfield, Va.
Population: 30,154
Percentage of People Who Carpool to Work: 21%
Average Commute Time: 29.8 minutes