Personality issues aside, there is often no better carpool partner than someone that you work with. There's a level of comfort in knowing who your sharing a ride with, and you have the same destination.

If you work for a medium to large company, there's a decent chance that you have coworkers that live near you. Metro offers employers a free employer scattermap service that helps employers to match nearby employees that are interested in sharing the commute.

Here's how it works: Your HR department creates a file of home addresses with the employee names replaced by a numeric codes. They give this file to Metro who creates a map with this information and then dumps the original data. What you get is a map with that show the areas where employees live.

From here, it is up to the employer to choose how to use the information.

Probably the most successful approach is where the HR department is active in facilitating carpools between those who live near each other.

Another is for HR to post the maps in break rooms. Employees who are interested in carpooling ask for HR to contact those who live near them. Either way, people's privacy is preserved.

Email us if you're interested in your employer creating a scattermap.

Sample map courtesy of Metro Regional Travel Options