June 28, 2008
Casual Car Pooling on the rise in San Francisco.
It's been around for a while, but is getting more popular with the rise in gas prices. Be sure to observe the rules!
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My town has instituted a carshare program, and is getting a vanshare together. And doing a test of subsidizing bus fares. Kinda cool.
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With the casual carpool, doesn't just one person end up paying for all the gas? Seems to me that it would be better for the driver to simply have an agreed on carpool, with either multiple cars or splitting gas costs.
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The driver benefits by being allowed to use car pool only lanes, and get where they are going faster. It's called slugging around the Washington DC area.
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drivers also get to cross the bridges in the bay area for free, and get special lanes during rush hour...
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I've been doing this for years between Berkeley and SF. Yes, one person pays for the gas. But up until recently gas was not the main motivation. If you drive your car alone into the city, there's a $4 toll plus sometimes as much as a 30 minute backup getting on to the Bay Bridge. If there are three of you in the car, you bypass the lineup and the toll and cut your 45-60 minute drive down to 20 minutes. One really remarkable thing is how the idiot lawyers and fearmongers have been kept out of the picture. There are all sorts of imaginary what-if movie script scenarios that one could imagine and get all demandy and insist for "safety" and "security" someone needs to "do something" about it. Magically, that hasn't happened yet and so we've got institutionalized hitch hiking.
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This reminds me of what happened in NYC during the MTA Transit Strike late '05. I was quite amazed at how easily so-called "casual carpools" worked out. It was kinda fun hopping a ride to work with total strangers and engaging in some unexpected conversation that was unlike something to be had on the subways!