In 2019, Duncan Mugisha planned a trip to Gisenyi with his best friend. On a Friday morning, he set off from his home in Kabeza as early as 5am to Nyabugogo where his friend was waiting to be picked up. The two wanted to have fun as they had saved money for the trip. They looked forward to the cool lakeshore breeze, eating fish, and swimming.

On reaching Nyabugogo, some people who were eagerly waiting for a bus, hurriedly walked to Mugisha’s car before his friend could even enter to sit. They asked for a ride as they were heading in the same direction, and even offered to contribute money for fuel. Mugisha agreed to take three of them seeing as it was the only space left, but since he had already filled his fuel tank, he felt there was no need for them to pay him.

"At first, there was total silence in the car, like it usually is when meeting people for the first time, everyone was looking on, and so I decided to play music. But after about one hour, we started introducing ourselves to each other and what we did for a living, and there we were, strangers becoming friends. We shared stories and the car was full of laughter. We stopped along the way and to buy drinks and snacks and continued with the journey,” Mugisha says.

Travelling as a group, Mugisha says, is way better than travelling alone as you can take turns to drive if one is tired or sleepy, especially for long journeys.

Since he wasn’t familiar with the routes, one of the people they had given a lift offered directions, which means it’s hard to get lost if you’re many.

He also says that travelling as a group opened doors to new friendships as all the five guys are still friends to this day and hang out often in and out of Kigali.

Is carpooling the way to go?

Do you ever wake up in the mood to leave the city, to be somewhere quiet or just change environment for a couple of days? But if you don’t have a car of your own, boarding a bus can be a little uncomfortable and tiring—the fact that the bus keeps stopping often to drop passengers off and pick others, among other issues. Well, if you have a friend who owns a car, the experience may be different.

There are many ways to travel, like carpooling (also car-sharing, ride-sharing and lift-sharing), which is the sharing of car journeys so that more than one person travels in a car, and prevents the need for others to have to drive to a location themselves. It is an arrangement between people to make a journey in a single vehicle, sometimes taking turns to drive. In Kigali, many people are embracing carpooling; you’ll often come across posts on social media of someone driving to a place out of town, looking to share costs. This might sound okay for people who know each other, but is it safe to share a car with random strangers, one may wonder.

"Have you ever been on a road trip before? The first road trip I ever had in my life was to Busia, located at the border of Uganda and Kenya. It was quite an experience since I was excited to carpool to our destination,” says Kelly Brian Kaganzi, a journalist.

Since they were a group of 10, travelling in their own cars would be boring, and expensive, he says, and that’s why they opted to use a super custom vehicle as it could carry them all.

Kaganzi says that they all contributed to transport, and saved money to buy other things along the way.

To him, using one car is safer because in case there is any problem with the car, or along the way, you will solve the issue together, which isn’t the case when driving alone.

He also notes that carpooling takes away the stress of driving for most people, as they enjoy being passengers and relaxing, without minding the road.

"Carpooling actually saves time because it helps you organise yourself within the time duration that you have been given so that you don’t inconvenience others. And the beauty about it is that you get to your destination at the same time,” he says.

Kaganzi is of the view that with busy schedules, most people don’t usually get time to catch up, but with carpooling, bonds are strengthened as you get to talk in length about what has been happening in each other’s’ lives. In case of any misunderstandings in the past, you get to iron them out and start afresh. This nurtures great friendships and creates a happy environment for all.

According to him, travelling as a group allows you to meet new people who may be developmental or helpful.

Kaganzi further notes that carpooling reduces environment distraction. It lowers greenhouse gas emitting which improves the quality of the air that we breathe within the community due to the reduction of cars on the road, since people are sharing a ride.

This also helps improve the health within the community and reduces respiratory diseases that are usually caused by air pollution caused by the cars. So the less the cars, the better the air quality we breathe, he adds.

The journalist highlights that carpooling also reduces traffic on the road. This is because the more people share a ride, the fewer the cars are thus allowing other cars to move freely. It also reduces congestion, especially in urban centres.

However, he says that this travelling method also has its pitfalls. For instance, there is less flexibility with your schedule and activities, for people who start their days with jogging, yoga and other activities.

Carpooling is less private; you can’t pick private calls as everyone can hear you, even when you decide to text, your neighbour may be looking at what you type, which is a bit uncomfortable, he says.

Kaganzi also highlights that you have to go by what the majority want, if most people love loud music, yet you prefer a quiet space, you will feel out of place.

"This method of travelling also promotes laziness, more so when you know how to drive. Our colleague who had offered to drive reached a time and got tired and needed to change the driver but no one was willing to drive. We had to rest for about an hour for him to rest yet one of us could have taken over. No one wanted the stress of driving and up to now, I would prefer someone driving me than me driving,” he says.

He also points out that some people are naturally not good at keeping time, if you communicate the time to meet, others will arrive late, a thing that results in travelling late which is risky when you are not familiar with the roads.

Carpooling may be an effective way to reduce significant costs but you may want to weigh the pros and cons before doing so. It is advised to discuss disadvantages and figure out solutions or alternative options so carpooling can happen successfully.