Carpooling is a really good idea. It saves gas, money, the environment ... But if you live in Ontario, Canada, it is also illegal.
Well, here's the story of a startup company called PickupPal, who wants to make it easier for people to find others traveling to the same place and carpool there:
Great idea, right? Wrong. The bus companies freaked and sued under an Ontario law that limits carpoolers to traveling only from home to work and back, riding with the same driver every day and paying only by the week, among other restrictions. This is despite the fact that the government has spent “billions” in carpooling lanes.
Anyway, the court case was decided and PickupPal lost. They were fined CA$11,000 and forced to keep that despicable carpooling activity within the strict limits of the law
TechCrunch has the story: Link
http://moneygrubbinglawyer.com/2008/11/13/get-it-right-carpooling-is-still-legal-pickuppalcom-is-not/
"That story is probably missing a lot of details. Never heard of any laws against car pooling."
And yes, I think any story that would report otherwise is sensationalistic and wildly inaccurate.