Carpooling Characteristics in Large Employment Centers: higher institutions as a case study

Oluwasegun O Aluko

Congestion resulting from commuting remains a challenge mobility management is facing. In a developing African city where public transport is poorly managed, many employees who would have happily been a public transport patron strive to drive to work to escape the use of public transport. An alternative to the use of personal auto is carpooling for this group of employees. This paper takes the workplace as research unit to analyse the use of carpooling by higher institution employees in Ado Ekiti, Nigeria. The analysis reveals that a high percentage (63.4%) of employees drive to work while only 12.2% carpool. It also indicates that the ride-sharing practice may not include sharing the cost of travel by the carpooling partners. This analysis gives insight to the which group of people may more likely adopt carpooling and the motivations for it, and may thus contribute to the development of sustainable transport policies.