Someone who lives 30 minutes away from me asked me if I wanted to ride with her to an event tonight. I don't like carpooling so I told her I was taking my own car.

I don't get this, though. She lives 30 minutes south of me. The event is ten minutes north of me. My house is not really on her way and her house is very far out of my way.

The last time I was supposed to carpool with her, she was 20 minutes late and then asked me to wait another half hour at the toll booth plaza for her to show up, so I really have no idea why she thinks I'd want to ride with her.

But less specifically, I feel like I have a few friends who always want to take one car, even if it means that someone has to spend considerable time driving out of their way. One former friend admitted that she didn't want to give up her parking spot-- but she was okay with me wasting my time and gas to pick her up and drop her back off.

With other friends, their motivations are less clear. Do they just like the company in the car? I can understand if we were driving a long distance or if parking is tight, but when people want to take one car for a ten minute drive, I don't get it.