Adam McFarland

Let’s be clear about something: carpooling or using alternative transportation is absolutely great for the environment. That’s not what this post is about. This post is directed to everyone who says “I love carpooling, it saves me so much money.” See, most people I know carpool for just that reason: to save money. But do you really save money?

Consider the example of my three partners and I. Let’s say that all four of us carpool to our warehouse for four days each week.

It’s a ~9 mile drive to work for each of us, or an ~18 mile round trip. According to CommuteSolutions.org, the true cost of driving - including drivers expenses (like vehicle depreciation, maintenance, insurance, etc) and societal costs (like accidents, congestion cost, air pollution damage, CO2 reduction, etc) is $1.19/mile.

If I’m not driving: I wait roughly 10 minutes to be picked up, spend roughly 10 minutes in the car while other people are getting picked up, and wait another 10 minutes while everyone is being rounded up to leave. It could be less time than this, but it could also be more (we all know that person that keeps saying ‘just give me 5 more minutes to finish something’ and it ends up taking 30 minutes). Anyway, average time wasted = 30 minutes when not driving.

If I drive: I spend roughly 20 minutes picking people up, including calling them when I get there and waiting for them. I spend 15 minutes dropping them off. I still spend the 10 minutes waiting for everyone to be ready to leave. That’s also roughly 10 miles combined of additional driving. Average time wasted = 45 minutes, additional cost of mileage = 10 x $1.19/mile, or $14.28.

Also, there’s also at least 30 minutes of additional wasted time every four days when someone says “can we stop at XYZ for a few seconds because it’s on the way and I really need to blah blah blah”.

Since there’s four of us, let’s just do the math on a four day schedule.

In any four day period without carpooling, I would commute 72 miles (18 x 4), it would cost me $85.68 and have a time loss of 0 minutes.

In any four day period with carpooling, I would drive 28 miles (18 + 10), it would cost me $33.32 and have a time loss of 165 minutes ((30 x 3 )+ 45 + 30).

So here’s the million dollar question: is 165 minutes in lost time worth saving $52.36? I don’t know about you, but my time is worth a lot more than $19.04/hour. I also value the freedom to know that I can come and go whenever I want.

I’m not saying I won’t carpool on occasion if it’s convenient socially or if I’m in a particularly green mood and want to help the environment, just that on a day-to-day basis it is absolutely not a good financial move for me.

Last night I set the alarm for 5:50 AM and this morning I forced myself out of bed prior to 7 AM for the first time in recent memory. Why? Because today - at 6 AM Eastern Time - OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) started their Give One, Get One program.

The mission of One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) is to empower the children of developing countries to learn by providing one connected laptop to every school-age child. In order to accomplish our goal, we need people who believe in what we’re doing and want to help make education for the world’s children a priority, not a privilege. Between November 12 and November 26, OLPC is offering a Give One Get One program in the United States and Canada. During this time, you can donate the revolutionary XO laptop to a child in a developing nation, and also receive one for the child in your life in recognition of your contribution.

For $399 ($200 of which is tax-deductible) a laptop is sent to a child in a developing nation, and one is also sent to you. In addition, you also get one year of free T-Mobile HotSpot access (a $350 value).

For those of you who haven’t heard about the laptop, it is absolutely revolutionary. It can be built for under $200 (soon to be under $100), and runs a plethora of custom open source software on a special Linux operating system. To accommodate the developing nations ,the laptop has long battery life (and can be re-charged using a hand crank on the device), a screen that can be viewed outdoors, and antennas to act as relays for wireless internet access!

I became very intrigued by the mission of the program when I first heard about it, and once the Give One, Get One program was announced I was absolutely thrilled to have the opportunity to donate one of these amazing machines AND get one myself. My hope is to eventually have Pure Adapt develop web applications to work specifically with the laptops unique resolution and web browser to help make the knowledge of the web more accessible to these kids, but in the short term it’s just going to be a fun toy. On top of that, I’m pumped to get the T-Mobile HotSpot access so I can finally get free wi-fi at Starbucks (Albany, like every other city in the country, has about 500 Starbucks and maybe 5 other coffee shops with wi-fi…it’s nice to have 500 more places I can get out to do some work and grab a good drink).

Some people have been critical of the mission of the organization, namely their focus on developing countries over domestic kids in need. From their FAQ:

Why are these laptops going to children in developing nations when there are needy children in the U.S.?

In the U.S., the average expenditure for education is $7,500 dollars per child. In developing countries, the average expenditure is typically less than $300 dollars per child. One Laptop Per Child is initially focused on where the need is most urgent. A number of U.S. states have approached One Laptop Per Child and expressed interest in the program, and in the long run, One Laptop Per Child hopes to work with those states and help children everywhere.

I can certainly understand the opposing view, but I happen to agree 100% with that sentiment - I view the entire world as one family and our brothers and sisters in the most need are in developing countries.  If you happen to agree too, there’s no better Holiday gift that you can give than the gift of education to a needy child.

A few posts ago I mentioned our PDF invoice system for Detailed Image, one of the main benefits of which is that it brings us a step closer to being a paperless company. Every PDF I’ve opened since we began working on that has reminded me that I’m saving paper by reading it on my screen.This afternoon I had the same thought while “flipping” through a digital booklet that came with an album I recently purchased on iTunes. At first I thought “isn’t it nice that I’m saving a little paper by viewing this on my computer”. Then I thought “I buy like 5 albums a month…I’m saving quite a bit of paper”. Which of course led me to think “oh crap, how much waste is being saved each time a CD is downloaded instead of purchased?”

Let’s break this down. Each time you download a CD on iTunes (and back it up electronically as opposed to printing the album cover and burning the CD) you save:

• Paper and ink from the album cover and backing.
• Plastic for the album case.
• A CD and the ink used to print on the face.
• Shrink wrap to seal the album.
• Gas and other costs associated in transporting the CD…more than once (from manufacturer to distributor to consumer).
• Electricity and other resources consumed in manufacturing and assembly.

Like most people, I love iTunes for the convenience. Turns out it might be having a larger impact than we realize.