High gas prices and little spare time are some reasons behind carpooling, but the difficulty of finding a person to share the ride with often causes commuter students to drive alone.

Commuter and Non-Traditional Student Services is creating an online collection of the names of people interested in carpooling in an effort to make the search a little bit easier.

“We’re putting together a database so people can search to see who’s coming from where and when they are coming to campus so people can car pool,” said Troy Melendez, director of Commuter and Non-Traditional Student Services.

The car pool database should be running by summer, Melendez said.

“Everyone knows parking on campus is a pain in the butt,” he said. “By limiting or reducing the number of cars on campus we feel we’re positively influencing the parking on campus.”

Parking Services has currently sold 5,615 yellow parking permits this year, according to Laura Lundelius, the coordinator of Parking and Traffic. Yellow permits are available to commuter students living outside DeKalb and graduate assistants not living in university-sponsored housing, according to the Parking Services Web site.

People involved in creating the database would work alongside Parking Services to better designate commuter parking areas and clear up one of the biggest carpooling issues, parking permits, Melendez said.

According to Lundelius, many students have asked about sharing a single permit while sharing the drive, an idea she does not necessarily approve of.

“We’ve had students ask this question in the past and we advise them that this is not the best idea,” Lundelius said. “We’ve had students share permits, gets tickets and have a fall out between them and unfortunately one student gets stuck with the bill.”

However, Lundelius does back carpooling as a financially beneficial plan as long as the parties communicate well. “There’s a monetary advantage to carpooling, but proper planning is essential to make carpooling beneficial for all who are involved,” she said.