Our free groups for summer music festivals like Oxegen, Electric Picnic, Live at the Marquee, Sea Sessions, Indiependence, Castlepalooza, Life, Body & Soul Solstice, and many others make it easy for you to find drivers or passengers going your way. If you’re having a party and want a group of your own, let us know, and in the meantime here’s to meeting new tripmates - pump up the volume, dance dance!
Imagine that at the end of this century, when your human grandchildren have been born, planet earth will be a scorched dust-bowl and humans will only survive on the fringes of the Antarctic. Do you think that’s a possibility? Hard to imagine? Well humans, I’m sorry to say but this is indeed what will happen if radical changes aren’t made in global carbon emissions over the next few years. Some humans even think it’s too late, but, like a lot of dogs I’m keeping optimistic that people will wake up and smell the coffee.
What’s a dog to do?
Well, yesterday, in spite of the rain, I took myself off, with my humans, to the new Cultivate/Eco-Unesco building, The Greenhouse, in St. Andrew Street (where Enfo used to be, opening to the public on 2nd December) for a lunchtime seminar on Carbon Tax. The humans were very interested. I was mildly interested at first and just wanted somewhere to curl up and dry out from having walked into town in torrential rain. But… I couldn’t believe my dog-ears! I had no idea how serious the situation really is. The picture for the future of planet earth, home to us all, is bleak - the rain forests torched, the polar ice caps melted, heat and dust everywhere.
…and it’s not the dogs doing it!
Look at the past few weeks in this country… has the torrential, bucketing-down rain put a smile on your face each day? I wouldn’t think so. Look at the top left photo - that’s me and the position I’ve been in for the past few weeks. There was nothing else for it but to take to the bed and stay dry. Now, take a look at my photo below before things started to get really bad. That’s me carpooling with my human wearing my happy, smiley dog-face.
What kind of world do we want to live in because from where I’m standing it’s looking like we’d better get used to the fact that endless rain might not be a passing weather phase but a permanent fixture in this country.
Our climate is changing forever, unless you do something and do it now. I’m saying this as your Best Friend and I’m hoping that we dogs won’t have to re-evaluate this age-old relationship…!
It’s a dog’s life - sometimes being a website mascot is really demanding! I’ve been on three photo-shoots now, and not once did someone style my hair or offer me any mascara. Still, what can you expect from humans? I forgive them - the main thing is that I’ll do anything to promote carpooling - besides the joy of car-surfing, I really hate smog and traffic. My humans also seem to like sharing costs - and if they’re saving money they might be able to afford the odd treat for me, which is important! Have a read of the article and see what you think - is my hair okay?
Now I really feel famous! I’m in the Femme section of the Evening Herald. It’s my first time in the company of Sarah Jessica Parker, too, and I think she probably was pretty happy to be on the same page as me. In fact, that’s the only thing that was missing from Sex in the City - a little white dog - maybe she and I should do lunch…!
The proposed city centre car ban, and its opposition, are 
examples of the adversarial thinking that is becoming out of date. People need to drive into the city, and businesses need them to do so. The problem isn’t the number of people coming in, or that they need to drive: the problem is that they’re driving alone. Facilitating carpooling would solve the problem: the park-and-ride facilities at the Red Cow roundabout and Sandyford industrial estate could easily handle carpoolers as well as Luas users, and there are plenty of industrial estates that could handle a little more parking now that less employees are coming to work. The same conditions exist at most cities across Ireland. Why don’t businesses and city councils cooperate to promote carpooling? Shoppers and workers could save on petrol and parking, as well as sharing information on good deals…Who knows, maybe someone would even carry your shopping!
Just when I thought you humans were really barking mad, you go and redeem yourselves! According to the February brief on Trendwatching.com, corporations are preparing to ditch greed and embrace generosity! They’re getting the message that countless humans have already started doing this: giving is the new taking, and sharing is the new giving. It’s how I feel about car-sharing and carpooling and why I love it so much!
TripMia, the dog-blogger
Hello humans,
It was really great that the government published their ‘Smarter Travel, a Sustainable Transport Future’, last week to tackle congestion but am I the only one who thinks walking, cycling and public transport aren’t always the answer? When my humans are going to work how are they expected to take me on a bicycle? Cars aren’t all bad, once you’re carpooling or carsharing. I do it all the time. You won’t catch me travelling alone. Never in fact! I’d love to hear what others think. Have you gotten into carpooling yet?
TripMia, the Tripmi.ie dog-blogger
I’ve just joined the Tripmi team and due to my proven dedication to car-pooling and car-surfing I’ve been honoured with the role of resident blogger. I prefer the term dog-blogger as I’m an 8 year old Havanese terrier (I’ll be 9 on April 26th) who moved from Ripley, Derbyshire to South Circular Road, Dublin 8, when I was only 12 weeks old. I’ll invite guest bloggers from time to time but in the meantime check in with me regularly for the latest on car-pooling, car-sharing, lift-sharing and other things green.
It’s great to see the media recognising that rideshares are the transport of the future -(see The Irish Independent) - I do wish, however that the writer had covered more than just the Dublin City carpool website! While that site is commendable in its ambitions, it has its limitations and it would be nice for people to know that there are several carpool websites - of which Tripmi.ie is the best, of course! The fact that Tripmi.ie is all-Ireland and keeps your details private are two of the main differences between us and them…But hopefully the media will continue to acknowledge the importance of carpooling in the current economic climate but next time give people all the information!
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…)
