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At first glance, the idea of everyone in Ireland driving electric cars sounds great.  But when looking at Minister Eamon Ryan’s announcement of his ambition to have 10% of the cars in Ireland electric by 2010, one has to notice his collaborators: ESB, Nissan and Renault.  None of these parties can or should be expected to serve anything other than their own interests.  The minister provides very little detail on how this new demand for electricity is to be met.  If this announcement were linked to new wind or sea-power farms, or animal methane, or the dairy by-products and cooking oils that are already fuelling cars around the world, that might be something to get excited about.  But hoping that electric cars will be the magic bullet for our climate change problems, and that an electricity company and car manufacturers are going to be the saviours, sounds at best naïve.  The roads are already overcrowded and making the shift from oil to electricity is like a heroin addict switching to smoking instead of shooting: the greater problem remains.  Is the minister going to require all civil servants to carpool by 2010?  Or offer free tolls, discounted insurance and/or motor tax to carpoolers? That would make a big difference to the energy usage and carbon footprint of this country, but no profits for ESB, Nissan and Renault.  Who’s running this government, anyway?

Around now, what with Christmas looming, many people are thinking about going home for some relaxing or traumatic family fun - but if you happen to be relying on public transportation you could be in for a hellish time even before you get near Uncle Billy and his perennial story about the goat.  If you’re lucky, and you’re trying to get to somewhere that’s serviced by public transport, you can expect long queues, crushing crowds and endless delays, while if you’re anywhere off the beaten track - that is, outside the major cities - you’d better be very creative to get anywhere near home.  I’m sure everyone has heard the old adage about once upon a time in Ireland you were never more than 7 miles from a train station, but those days are long gone. And now, if you’re trying to get to Donegal, West Cork, Connemara or even Laois, I’d say you’re better off carpooling.

Rideshares are the 21st century version of hitch-hiking, but without the terror.  As someone who spent my teens hitch-hiking through Spain and France I don’t miss standing for hours on the side of the road because I was foolish enough to bring a boy along (or worse yet, hiding the boy and when a car stopped watching it screech away in a cloud of dust when the driver realised that there was more than a single girl looking for a lift).  Or the way you could wait for ages and it was only the moment you lit your last precious cigarette that a car stopped?  Or the countless pervs who thought sticking out your thumb was the equivalent to lifting up your skirt?  It was hairy out there.  But nowadays (and here’s some shameless self-promotion but with a grain of truth!) thanks to Tripmi.ie you can pre-arrange when your carpool is leaving and from where (no more getting booted off the motorway by cops), you can decide whether you want to talk or not (no more feigning interest for hours in the driver’s exhaustive lighter collection) and even whether you want to listen to music or your own headphones - all before you even put on your coat.  So if you’re driving home for the holidays, spare a thought for those who need a lift (and can share the petrol costs) and if you don’t have a car, jump in a carpool, sit back, relax and enjoy the ride.  (So to speak…)