Car poolers and interest in car pooling seem to have increased in the Akron area as the price of gas has gone up.

A cooperative of transportation and environment planning organizations runs a Web site on which people interested in car pooling, or even people without cars interested in paying to grab a ride with someone, can get connected.

At Ohio Ride Share, http://www.ohiorideshare.com, potential car poolers can register for free, put in their starting and ending points and find potential matches, said Curtis Baker, Ohio Ride Share spokesman. For privacy reasons, people are only given the first name of potential car pool matches and can send a message via the Web site for that person to see. Then the two can connect with each other and find out if a car pool would work, he said. People without Internet access can register by phone at 800-825-7123.

People can use their home addresses, or meet up at a parking lot of a nearby business. Car poolers can work out their own logistics, said Baker, who is a planner for the Akron Metropolitan Area Transportation Study.

The service has seen a marked increase since gas prices started rising, and especially since this summer, Baker said.

For Summit and Portage counties, which AMATS covers for the Web site, there were about 20
registered participants in January 2007 when the site first started. This summer, it was 300 and now there are about 650 active car poolers in the two counties, Baker said. He estimates there are probably 2,000 car poolers in Northeast Ohio through the site.

The pinch in the wallet has probably been the biggest motivation for car poolers, though there are some who are environmentally conscious and want to reduce their ''carbon footprint'' by driving less, he said.

Baker said it's difficult to know exactly how many people are driving in a car pool each day, but ''when you start looking, it seems like you see more cars with two people's heads than one.''

The Ohio Ride Share site allows users to include preferences, like gender or a nonsmoker. The site doesn't share any details besides the person's first name, so once you connect with that person, you'll be able to find out if they work at the same company or somewhere close by.

Baker said often car poolers know each other or work at the same company or nearby. The groups have approached several large, local companies to encourage them to share the site with employees. The group might be able to work with companies individually to create a specific employer database, Baker said.

Safety is always an important issue, Baker said.

Organizers suggest talking on the phone and meeting in a public place before deciding whether to car pool.

Baker said most drivers have gotten used to driving themselves, but with some adjustments, they can save money on gas.

''As gas has gone up, people are starting to realize maybe it's OK if I have to listen to country music in the car for three days a week if I really don't want to,'' Baker said. ''Car pooling isn't for everyone. But I bet there's easily a quarter of the driving population that could make it work if they wanted to do it. We're going after that chunk of people.''