Paying for rides! |
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Jody
New Slug Joined: 01 Aug 2006 Status: Offline Points: 0 |
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A few years ago, I registered with commuter connections to try and join or start a carpool with destinations of Springfield to 17th & K. I got people looking for rides from 14th & Independence and 23rd & N. So I stayed with the slug line.
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mycroftt
New Slug Joined: 11 Feb 2002 Location: VA Status: Offline Points: 0 |
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I slugged for about 5 years and am now in a carpool. Due to work schedules and travel I am sometimes the only one in my pool going in to work. My choices are to slug, take the VRE, or to drive. If I decide I want to drive I pick up slugs to reduce the amount of time it takes for me to drive to and from work. The additional gasoline cost of having two passengers is negligible and is way more than offset by the convenience of driving on the HOV, not to mention spending less time sitting in traffic burning gas while not moving.
If any driver is so self-centered as not to be able to see what the slugs are contributing to your commute, I suggest they drive to work in the regular lanes for a couple of days and compare your gas consumption, your time, and your stress level while driving on the regular lanes and on the HOV. You will then have a good understanding of what the slugs contribute. In fact you will probably be willing to pay the slugs a dollar to get in your car. Suppose the slugs went on strike for a week and refused to get in any car without being paid a dollar. As a driver it would be more than worth it for me to ante up and drive in the HOV. |
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beachhead
New Slug Joined: 08 Jul 2004 Status: Offline Points: 0 |
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The beauty of the slug system is that it has always been based on a market. If drivers want to start collecting fees for rides, let them try. The market will regulate itself. I have driven and ridden in this system. I won't ever ask anyone to pay me for a ride and I won't ever get in a car whose driver asks for or expects money. If the HOT works the way we are always told it will, then drivers will get to drive in the express lanes without paying, as long as they have enough riders. That ups the value of slugs in the car, whether or not they are talking on their cell phone, not wearing seat belts, farting, picking their noses or whatever. These are behaviors that can be modified if the driver insists on "appropriate" slug behavior in exchange for the ride. Let's not mix them up with the cost of transporting people in the HOV lanes. The market will take care of that. If you are a driver and don't think so, try collecting a fare from your slugs tomorrow. And would we then all have to wait longer to pick up or be picked up because every car will have to conduct negotiations for every slug? Please, let's get real here.
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J.T.
New Slug Joined: 23 Apr 2008 Status: Offline Points: 0 |
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Thanks Beachhead! That's a great way to close this thread. However, by the sound of it, the topic will come up again in about 3 years so we may want to remember this discussion. [:D][:D][:D]
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whatever_k
New Slug Joined: 05 Dec 2007 Status: Offline Points: 0 |
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Hmm, I am always the driver and I too have mixed feelings about the slugs paying for rides. Sometimes I do think to myself being a slug has MAJOR benefits and what do I get ungrateful, rude, smelly and sometimes demanding riders. Someone either wants you to turn the air on or roll the window up, or turn the radio up or down. My thought is your getting a free ride sit back and close your eyes. I've noticed over the past few months driving are asking for a lot more benefits. I've thought about being a slug but have not opted for it yet. I look at how some drive and don't think my tinker could handle it.
I've very interested to see if money will exchange hands. Sometimes the riders are not worth the smell I have to endure for 20 minutes or so. Nor is the constant talking on cell phones. |
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Ollie
New Slug Joined: 17 Jan 2008 Location: VA Status: Offline Points: 0 |
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I am relatively new to the Slug system, been driving HOV for a few years now. My view is that slugs will have to pitch in for gas sooner or later. The Metro system is beyond capacity already, taking VRE and Metro to work is pretty expensive and both options will add a great deal of time to the commute each way. Have you tried getting out of a Metro parking garage in rush hour lately. One person noted that some companies offer free parking but those lucky individuals are few and far between. I think that the old time riders are stuck in another time when gas was cheap and rides were plentiful. I believe that slugs will be standing in longer and longer lines because fewer drivers will be able to afford the parking ($250) and $4.00 or more per gallon of gas. I think the system is breaking and HOT lanes could be the straw that broke the camels back. Not every drive comes in from as far as Stafford, Fredericksberg etc. and HOT lanes in from Sringfield might be a good alternative to sitting in lines waiting for slugs who want a free ride and offer nothing in return.
Driver looking forward to the HOT lanes |
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mycroftt
New Slug Joined: 11 Feb 2002 Location: VA Status: Offline Points: 0 |
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quote: So you're relatively new to slugging but feel qualified to declare that the system is broken and longtime participants who don't see it your way are stuck in another age, eh? Isn't it more likely that those who have been with the system for years are a bit more qualified to determine if it's broken or not? [:D] How about if we set up two lines for each destination, one for the drivers who demand money and the slugs who are willing to pay it, and another for the current no-pay system. Then the market can determine what happens. All the "Gas, Grass, or Ass - Nobody Rides For Free" drivers will sit in a lengthening line until all the free rides are gone and the slugs migrate over to pay for a ride to work (if they don't just buddy-up and ride to work in their own vehicles). If any of the "No Pay - No Ride" drivers doesn't want to wait, they can go over to the free line, trading their fare for a quicker commute. As a driver, you will find me in the free ride line. |
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CallmeMrSlug
New Slug Joined: 21 Mar 2005 Location: Virginia Status: Offline Points: 0 |
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Ollie says "The Metro system is beyond capacity already, taking VRE and Metro to work is pretty expensive and both options will add a great deal of time to the commute each way. Have you tried getting out of a Metro parking garage in rush hour lately. One person noted that some companies offer free parking but those lucky individuals are few and far between. I think that the old time riders are stuck in another time when gas was cheap and rides were plentiful. I believe that slugs will be standing in longer and longer lines because fewer drivers will be able to afford the parking ($250) and $4.00 or more per gallon of gas. I think the system is breaking and HOT lanes could be the straw that broke the camels back. Not every drive comes in from as far as Stafford, Fredericksberg etc. and HOT lanes in from Sringfield might be a good alternative to sitting in lines waiting for slugs who want a free ride and offer nothing in return.
Driver looking forward to the HOT lanes" Lets see, looking forward to HOT so you can ride solo for a fee huh? On top of the other costs you mention in your post, now add the tolls. Estimates are that the toll will probably be about 1.00 per mile during peak rush hour. Springfield to DC is 13 miles. So 26.00 per day round trip. 130.00 a week. 6,760.00 a year. Still anxious for those HOT lanes are we? If you have a choice to avoid paying that amount by picking up slugs, what will most people do? Now when everyone starts doing that what happens? HOT can't pay for itself anymore. So what will they do? They start charging drivers who pick up slugs 1/2 the toll, and they raise the tolls for everyone else. Drivers still save at least 3,380.00 a year by picking up slugs. Solo drivers will probably pay greater than 7,000.00 a year from Springfield. But HOT will remain clogged because Metro definitely is a bad deal time wise from Springfield, 45 minutes, and that doesn't include the time to get into and out of the metro parking lot and to walk to the metro line to and from your car. If your office is not next to a metro stop, you have to walk from the station to your office. So, if you can drive into DC in 15 minutes, or metro, what do you think people are going to do? VRE is a bit better because there are less stops but it is cost prohibitive from Springfield on in. The overwhelming number of VRE riders live from Burke Centre and further out to Manassas, or from Woodbridge and further south. So eventually, HOT will end the slugs for half price and then you and the rest of the people who can afford it will pay the cost of supporting HOT on your own. But what happens to the slugs? They pay to ride alone now too, adding three times the number of cars in the HOT, and the system collapses in congestion. And guess what HOT will do then? Raise the toll of course. 10,000 a year from Springfield will not be out of the question. |
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CatHerder
New Slug Joined: 06 Oct 2006 Status: Offline Points: 0 |
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HOT SNAFU. If you want riders to pay, form a carpool.
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dudte
New Slug Joined: 05 Oct 2006 Location: Va Status: Offline Points: 0 |
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I am always a driver now. For 3 years I was always a rider. Regardless of the price of gas I don't want $$ involved. I am happy to drive because I get to fly by all those to the right, creeping along at 5 mph. When I rode, I was happy to get a ride. It was and is mutually agreeable. We all say thanks when it is done.
If I get money it is no longer a mutually agreeable and equitable event. If I am expected to pay (as a rider) my expectations change. I will continue to be a slug driver if/when HOT comes. I like mutually agreeable, voluntary activities. I feel good slugging, whether I ride or drive. There are few enough complainers, farters, and whiners and way too many pleasant, polite, and respectful people to stop doing this. Keep your dollar or two. My feel good is way to valuable. Hop in, lets go home! |
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