Some university students are turning to carpooling to save money, but experts say there are barriers to Perth residents embracing the concept more widely.

Student Saya Notton has an hour-long commute to university and often carpools with friends.

“One of my teachers brought up the idea of carpooling to help with the fuel crisis, and the general consensus was that student’s busy schedules made it difficult for them to organise carpools,” she says.

WA-based company CommutHub is hoping to address that issue by developing an app to connect people across Perth who want to organise carpools.

Ms Notton isn’t sure the convenience of an app would be worth the possible safety risks of carpooling with a group of strangers, particularly as a young woman of colour.

“I don’t know if they’re gonna be racist, I don’t know if they’re going to be homophobic, I don’t know if they’re just going to hate me,” she says.

“The idea of getting into a car with five strangers sounds like a being trapped in a nightmare of awkward silence.”

University of Western Australia Planning and Transport Research Centre Associate Professor Chao Sun says despite its benefits, carpooling presents some practicality issues.

“It reduces greenhouse emissions and saves people time by reducing congestion,” he says.

“However, they do need to account for extra time picking up and dropping off, as people won’t be going to and from the exact same locations.”

A spokesperson from the WA Department of Infrastructure says it encourages people to carpool and use public transport where possible.

But the number of people carpooling in Australia remains low.

According to ABS data from the 2021 census, while six million commuters drove themselves to work, less than 500,000 were passengers on their commute to work.

Dr Sun says smart infrastructure design, such as dedicated lanes for cars carrying multiple passengers, could make carpooling a more viable and popular option.

“The question becomes how do you reinforce that? If you don’t reinforce that it’s not going to work,” he says.

“It’s a potential solution, but the devil is in the details.”