Development and Assessment of a Carpooling Applied System: Perspective of Users from Public-Education Sector

The heavy reliance on private cars is linked not only to harmful environmental impacts, such as gas emissions and global warming, but also to other issues like traffic congestion, road infrastructure maintenance, and the limited availability of parking spaces—significant concerns in many cities. To address these challenges, carpooling has been shown to be an effective solution, as it directly reduces emissions, alleviates congestion, and mitigates the environmental effects of transportation.The aim of this research is to enhance the understanding of carpooling in our society. To achieve this, a carpooling initiative among teachers for their commuting journeys was developed and implemented, followed by an evaluation of the system by a panel of experts. The results showed a 31.9% reduction in the number of cars on the road among participants, with a total of 109,080 km saved based on the reduced number of vehicles.The primary motivation for participants to adopt carpooling was fuel savings, while the reduction of physical fatigue from driving was identified as the second most important factor. Although some barriers to participation were identified, their impact was generally lower than that of the perceived benefits. These findings suggest that carpooling programs should focus on optimizing matching conditions and addressing individual concerns to promote wider adoption.