Toward an Understanding of Carpool Formation and Use

Recent transportation, economic and environmental trends demonstrate a need for altering the typical commuting practices in the Greater Golden Horseshoe (GGH) area. Travel Demand Management initiatives like Smart Commute’s, Carpool Zone, are working to reduce the negative externalities of commuting. Using a variety of secondary data sources, geographic visualization, and statistical methods, this thesis examines the carpool formation and use process in the GGH. The results indicate that municipalities with the highest rates of carpooling are in relatively affluent exurban/suburban areas, located beyond the Smart Commute programming jurisdiction. The most significant factor in the carpool process was found to be proximity to other Carpool Zone users. Other factors include; motivations to save time, gender, and current use of public transit. These results are both relevant in a behavioural science context – advancing current understanding of shared travel behaviour, and in the policy environment, as they inform how to improve carpool practices.MAS