Newburyport in the news

This is a nice story, from today's Globe North, about van pooling from Newburyport into Boston. Read the full story here.

The van leaves from the park-and-ride, looks like at 7 a.m. The riders in the van with the reporter appear to be having a jolly old time.

Alone, each would face a one-way ride of 36 miles or more to their offices in Boston's Financial District that - with the commute home each day - would end up costing at least $700 a month in gas and vehicle wear-and-tear and maintenance. And that doesn't include the price of parking and the toll over the Tobin Bridge.

And so, for about $500 less a month, they share a ride.

When I lived in Michigan, I used to carpool with 2-3 other people and we always had a good time. Well, except for the one time I had to drive us all from Flint back to Pontiac in a blizzard ... I drove a Mazda GLC at the time; which, for a small car, was amazing in the heavy, wet snow. I'm an excellent driver (never really took to Judge Wapner, though).

Anyway, back to the present. This van-pooling is enabled by MassRIDES, which has a database that matches up people interested in car-pooling, or van-pooling.

Sounds like an excellent plan to me. Wish I'd come up with the story idea, though!