Slugging -- when will everyone else be doing it?

Paul Minett is a tireless proponent of Casual Carpooling, also known as slug lines in San Francisco and Washington, DC. The idea is fueled by the notion traditional carpooling requires too much structure, commitment and planning. Yet, most of us own cars, which creates too much congestion.

For example, if the Chinese acquire autos at the same rate that Americans own autos, "climate change" will become "climate disaster." Right now, the Chinese own autos at the same rate of Americans in 1920 -- about 6 per 100 people, compared to Americans' 90 percent car ownership rate. Chinese make up 20 percent of the world's population and GM sees dollar signs in China. You do the math.

Casual carpooling is a way to use our cars more effectively and less often and while preserving convenience and the ability to go places public transit doesn't go.

This is how casual carpooling works in Oakland-San Francisco, near the Bay Bridge. Commuters park in Oakland and wait in a line to be transported over the Bay Bridge to downtown San Francisco. Riders get in the car, and most cars have an unspoken rule of silence. A car with three people is then entitled to ride in the CARPOOL ONLY lane, and gets downtown faster, paying a lesser or no (?) toll. At the end of the day, the same process is reversed, using a meeting place downtown.

The riders enter the driveres' cars as they arrive at the site, with no pre-arrangement required by drivers or riders. Ideally, there's a constant stream of drivers and riders during peak commuting hours. Some people prefer to always drive, and picking up riders means they save time, which for some, is in shorter supply than money.

Washington, DC also has several successful slug lanes, one of them at the Pentagon.

These two locations work because of the number of commuters going to the destinations and the benefit of using the HOV lanes. Time is more valuable than money for some people.

Paul addressed some of the questions about slugging, especially for women, who might feel more vulnerable getting into a stranger's car, on the Transp-TDM list serve [transportation-Transportation Demand Management].

"Last week I was in San Francisco and counted the people at the casual carpooling pick-up point at College and Claremont (Oakland). Some interesting facts: The line of people waiting for a ride grew to over 20 some of the time. The longest anyone waited for a ride was 11 minutes. Exactly 50% of the riders were female. Only after 8:30 am were there cars lined up. About a third of the cars took three passengers (rather than the "required" two for access to the HOV lane). In total there were 49 carpools formed during the 90 minutes that I was watching, and gave rides to 112 riders."

Paul's challenge is the same for most of us in the transportation demand management industry:
motivating people to leave their private personal polluting machines.

People leave their cars behind when
1. Everyone else is doing it.

2. Gas costs $4 or $5 a gallon -- and everyone else is paying $4.

3. Someone invites them to carpool and it's fun and social -- and everyone else is doing it.

4. They care about the environment [they are the exception -- unless everyone else is doing it.]

5. Public transit and/or bike commuting is convenient, safe, clean and dependable -- so everyone else is doing it.

The slug lanes work. How can we get everyone else doing it?

For a video explanation by Paul Minett on how Flexible or Casual Carpooling works, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn0T9kVd930. He works from down under in New Zealand.