Zipping along in the high-occupancy vehicle lane isn't the only benefit of carpooling. It saves an average of $2,500 in commuting costs and more than 2,400 tonnes of pollution a year.
Now Liberty Village is hopping on the Smart Commute carpool train with the launch of the Liberty Village Business Improvement Area (LVBIA) carpool zone on Feb. 12."Smart Commute works with downtown employers to get people out of cars and into more sustainable ways of commuting," said Marco Iacampo, with the Toronto-Central office of Smart Commute, a ride matching database for people looking to carpool.The database is customized to find drivers and riders carpool opportunities. In with a few steps you can find other commuters all over Ontario to share a ride with.There are currently 100 people registered with the Liberty Village carpool zone."Ride matching is only as good as the number of people looking match up," Iacampo said. "The objective is to build critical mass for the Liberty Village carpool zone."The LVBIA initially retained Smart Commute, a program of the Toronto Environment office and Metrolinx, to look at the travel patterns and behaviors of commuters in the area.Results of a survey done in November showed the bulk of people who work in Liberty Village experience a 45-minute daily commute."Commuting in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) takes three 32 per cent longer than it would in free-flowing conditions," Iacampo told the group of business people and property managers who gathered for a Green Lunch and Learn, organized by the BIA.For more information on how you can participate, visit www.carpoolzone.ca and select the Liberty Village BIA from the drop down menu.People who register in the month of February are entered for a chance to win an Apple IPod Touch or an ITunes gift card.