Paying for rides!

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.

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]

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

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.

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!