Want to save hundreds in fuel costs?

By Wayne Laepple
The Daily Item

May 19, 2008 11:24 am

— Second of a three-part series
Carpooling is a way of life for Kelley Dreese, of Freeburg, and her family.
With three kids involved in a variety of sports, Dreese often found herself driving to Selinsgrove six times a week to pick up and deliver her young athletes.
With summer coming, and the prospect of her kids attending sports camps in Selinsgrove and Northumberland, Dreese organized a car pool with two other families.
“We had to do it,” she explained. “It was costing us $15 a week for gas.”
The three families will take turns weekly shuttling five youngsters to various games and practices.
“My SUV gets 14 miles per gallon,” she lamented. “We have a car, but we can’t all fit into it.”
Dreese is no stranger to carpooling, she said. For nine years, she carpooled to her job in Harrisburg, working in engineering for Verizon.
“I drove with three state workers,” she said. “One came from Danville, one from Mount Pleasant Mills and one from Shamokin Dam.”
They would meet every morning at the south end of Selinsgrove near the speedway and make the trip to Harrisburg.
Asked how she found her carpool partners, Dreese said it was word of mouth.
“Somebody mentioned to me they knew someone who was looking for a carpool, and I got in touch with them.”
Dreese said it’s very important that carpoolers get along with each other.
“I was in one for a while with a guy that just didn’t fit,” she related. “It was awful.”
Dreese works from home now, but her carpool experience has been useful.
“With the cost of gas, not doing it is like throwing money out the window,” she said.
Selinsgrove Borough Council President Carol Handlan is also a firm believer in carpooling.
Handlan travels to Harrisburg, where she is an assistant vice president at the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency.
She makes the trek daily from her Pine Street home with Maressa Duncan, of Danville, and Ruth Brouse, of Dewart. All three work in the same building.
They leave for Harrisburg at 6:30 a.m., and whoever isn’t driving parks in the garage behind Handlan’s home.
Handlan began carpooling at the end of last year as the price of gas began to take a bigger bite from her paycheck, she said. When she was driving alone, she had to fill her Toyota twice a week with gas. At first, she traveled just with Brouse. Duncan has only recently joined the carpool.
“I was out somewhere and recognized her as someone who worked in my building, and we talked,” Handlan said. “One thing led to another.”
The three take turns driving.
“It really breaks up the week,” she said of their arrangement. “You only drive every third day.”
Handlan adjusted her work schedule, with the approval of her managers, so she could carpool.
“It’s working out well. We’re really flexible with each other. If one of us has a meeting, the others don’t mind waiting a half hour or so.”
“There are significant savings,” she said. “The cost of driving is staggering.”
Anticipating the question, Handlan said she calculated her savings at $276 a month.
“Instead of driving 20 days a month, I’m driving seven,” she reasoned.
Plenty of other people are carpooling from the Valley to work. Several unofficial parking areas south of Selinsgrove along old Routes 11-15 are filled every morning. A park-and-ride lot at the junction of Route 104 and Routes 11-15 near Liverpool is filled by 6 a.m., and a similar lot at the Turbotville exit of Interstate 180 is also nearly full every day.
Some of the larger employers in the region, such as Geisinger Medical Center, are working on plans to help employees arrange carpools. Tom Sheaffer at Geisinger said officials there have looked into the idea, but aren’t ready to unveil their plans.

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