Cutting down carbon emissions > Reducing transportation emissions > Public transportation > Carpooling in Lincoln
Image courtesy SpareLabs
Carpooling helps you save more than just money.
Why drive multiple vehicles when only one is needed? Utilizing rideshare services and carpooling are great ways to reduce the per capita transportation emissions of each person involved.
Benefits
Affordable
Because it cuts down on the necessary resources, carpooling is often cheaper than private transportation.
Impactful
The slight burden of carpooling helps you recognize just how often you’re travelling around the city – as well as just how unnecessary that transportation may be.
Community
You can’t carpool alone. Riding with others, particularly friends and coworkers, is a great way to get to know other members of the Lincoln community.
More information
Private rideshare services
Many rideshare services offer carpooling programs, where you designate that you don’t mind sharing the vehicle with other passengers that have similar routes. Some of these services include Uber with their UberPool option, and Lyft with their Shared Rides option. In addition to cutting down on emissions, many rideshare services also offer discounted rates for shared rides.
VanLNK
The City of Lincoln recently began a pilot of offering their own public rideshare service, VanLNK. Through the free VanLNK app, you can schedule a ride right from your door to the door of your destination, anywhere within city limits – and every ride is only $5.
VanLNK is always a shared-ride style service; if another rider schedules a similar route to yours at the same time, the software will include both of your stops along the way. This both helps ensure rides remain a mere $5, and that public transportation continues to be a method of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
VanLNK currently operates with the following hours:
- Monday-Friday: 7am-2pm, 4pm-8:30pm
- Saturday: 7am-6:45pm
- Sunday: no service
UNL carpooling
UNL offers carpooling-specific parking passes to full time UNL faculty and staff. This allows a group of 2+ staff or faculty members with similar routes to campus to jointly purchase a parking pass that can be exchanged between each individual’s vehicle, along with 10 daily permits that can be distributed among the individuals (for days when carpooling isn’t an option). Follow the link below to learn more and apply for a UNL carpooling parking permit.
Though the University does not offer student-specific carpool permits, that doesn’t mean that carpooling isn’t an option. If you live with or near a friend, opt to share the cost of a permit, and only purchase a permit for one of the vehicles – this will encourage you to travel together to and from the University, and opt for public transportation when carpooling isn’t an option.
General carpooling
Work a regular schedule, or live a ways from the grocery store? Carpooling can be as simple as asking a coworker if they would like to trade off days of picking each other up to save on fuel costs, or taking joint trips to the supermarket with neighbors once a week. You don’t have to be perfect – even carpooling just once a week helps reduce the emissions associated with private transportation around Lincoln.
SustainLNK 