We should spend more time and energy improving pedestrian and cycling infrastructure and stop the growth of urban sprawl which makes you incorrectly think you need to solve this problem. A great book on this topic - Carmageddon

I think it is a great way to save money and help the environment.

The big problem I see is security / trust. But you have that risk with rideshare.

Carpool is perhaps the only means of commute that offers no timing flexibility. Unlike public transport or driving/cycling alone. I would think, its a rather small market preferred by people with shift jobs or state/federal employees who don't can't stay a minute below or above their office hours.

Thanks for all the insights and discussion here, really appreciate the range of perspectives.

I’ve actually been building a long-distance carpooling app called Carpooll.com for a while now. We're starting to scale across Canada and getting great early traction, especially among students and intercity travelers.

If anyone here is curious or wants to test it out, I’d be happy to share a TestFlight link for iOS or an APK for Android. I'm also very open to feedback, feature suggestions, or just chatting about what an ideal carpooling experience should look like.

Feel free to reply here