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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - The city's director of lands and planning, Jeff Humble, told Yellowknifer last week carpooling is just one of many solutions that could come out of the city's transportation improvement study.

While the idea may seem novel, it is something a few city councillors have already given consideration to - at least in one form or another.

"The transportation issues committee has certainly discussed it," said Coun. Paul Falvo. "We want public transit to work. We want people to be able to move around extensively and efficiently."

For Falvo this means looking at putting together something like a shared taxi system, in which a taxi could operate similar to a carpool/bus hybrid during its off-peak hours.

While Falvo hasn't hashed out the specifics he envisions a ticket-style operation where the user pays for half the ticket and the city for the rest.

What he does know is the current bus system needs some improving.

"In an effort to make the bus go to all the places people need it, it goes to a lot of places - which means it takes a long time to go anywhere."

Coun. Mark Heyck thinks shared taxis is an idea with some merit.

"It's not quite carpooling as most people know it," he said, adding there are many cities around the world operating a similar system.

"It's much cheaper and reduces demand on individual vehicle use," Heyck said.

Traditional carpooling "is certainly worth exploring," he added. "We'll see if it works in Yellowknife.

Here it would be a little different. People would have to do it for the right reasons as opposed to because it's a faster way to get to work."

It might not take too much convincing, however, with the cost of filling up a tank.

"I'd imagine right now, particularly with the price of gas, that people are doing it on their own," said Coun. Shelagh Montgomery. "I can certainly imagine it as something that could work."

She added in a small community like Yellowknife it's likely many people are heading in the same direction to work anyway.

If officially implemented in Yellowknife, a carpooling website may benefit the community, she suggested. Such sites match up carpoolers with cars heading in the same direction they want to go.

Another option, she added, is car co-ops, which have many people sharing one car for trips. In this case, travellers don't all go together at the same time, but rather use the same car or cars and sign it out when needed.

Any solution, according to Mayor Gord Van Tighem, must wait until the results of the study are out.

"To me it's too early in the study to start picking on solutions because we haven't even got the numbers on how much traffic there is. It might seem like there's a lot because for 20 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes in the afternoon there is. But in general is there a lot? We don't know."

As for carpooling, he said "usually in communities where it does happen, it happens on an incentive basis. If you are carpooling you get an extra traffic lane, if you are carpooling you get access to parking areas or other things."

The success of such a program, he said, depends on "what incentives you have to create to make it happen over and above the price of gas."

An extra lane option is likely not the one for Yellowknife, he added, pointing out the roads are probably too narrow.

Either way, any solution for Yellowknife must be tailor-made, according to Falvo.

"It (will) take some real innovation. We'd probably be reinventing the wheel to a certain degree."