Halifax wants more commuters to carpool to help cut down traffic congestion and the emission of greenhouse gases.

City staff developed a new website — HRMSmartTrip.ca — that will help match people by location, travel route and working hours.

It's part of a larger initiative by the city to encourage more sustainable transportation methods, said Roxanne MacInnis, regional transportation planner with the city.

"The whole goal of this is to get more people out of their cars. We have a lot of people driving alone," MacInnis said.

"It's interlinked with using transit, obviously, using active modes of transportation, maybe even looking at alternative work hours and other ways to get people to not be driving all the time alone at peak periods, and to ensure that they have some flexibility to be able to get to work."

She said people can also search for partners with whom to walk or bicycle to work, or even take the bus.

Jennifer Powley, a sustainable transportation co-ordinator with the Ecology Action Centre in Halifax, said she thinks everyone in the Halifax area could benefit from carpooling.

"The use of single-occupancy vehicles needs to decline if the province is going to meet its greenhouse gas emission reductions. It needs to be done for cost efficiency. If the price of fuel is going to continue to increase, then everybody needs to look at more sustainable, more cost-efficient options," Powley said.

Gina Patterson,a program co-ordinator at Clean Nova Scotia, said that 68 per cent of commuters in the Halifax area drive alone. She welcomes the imitative and hopes the new website succeeds in cutting the number of cars on city streets.

The long-term benefits of carpooling, she said, includes better air quality, fewer accidents and less road damage.