Start Carpooling to Work

According to Pew Research Center, Americans are making few eco-friendly and sustainable lifestyle choices, even though three-quarters of the population see climate change as a very serious issue. The Environmental Protection Agency strongly recommends that people purchase an electric car, instead of one that runs on gas. However, 95% of Americans have not made this switch. The EPA also suggests that people carpool or use public transportation to commute to work, but three quarters of Americans still drive alone.

The graph below shows 7 different modes of transportation that people use to commute to and from work and how the popularity of each has changed since 1980. Since 1980, “driving alone” has increased from 64.4% to 76.5%. The number of people who carpool to work has decreased by more than half from 19.7% in 1980 to 9.2% in 2014. In general, people are also using less public transportation and taxis, but there is an increase in the number of people who work from home.

Even though the EPA has made recommendations as to how people can live more sustainably and 45% of the population has said that climate change is a huge threat, few people are actually making any changes to their routine. What do you think are other ways that would get people to actually make more sustainable choices?   

2 thoughts on “Start Carpooling to Work

  1. I think this was a great way to approach the assignment! I really liked how you wrote about how individuals acknowledge that climate change is a threat, but how no significant action is being taken to help decrease these emissions. Also, I liked how you were able to show the change in actions through time by using percents.

  2. Good post! I definitely can see how on an individual basis, one might view their carbon output as minimal and not enough to where they change their type of transportation. Also, pointing out how carpooling has decreased significantly was an interesting variable that I had previously thought not to measure. Could this be that people have become more content driving by themselves, or have cars been made more affordable?

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