Grad Students researching slug system; need help

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   I am about to start commuting into Washington DC and I am thinking of collecting statistics of my daily commute. I will try a month by VRE and a month by slugging, and I plan on marking times such as 

	1 when I leave my house

	2 when I get to the VRE or slug parking lot

	3 when I get to work

	4 weather conditions or other notes on the day's commute. 

	Do you plan on collecting information such as this for your research? It would be interesting to see how metro compares to slugging for time, reliability, ease, and other factors.

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glen Members Profile Find Members Posts New Slug Joined: 03 Nov 2006 Status: Offline Points: 0	Post Options Post Reply Quote glen Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 03 Nov 2006 at 10:21am
	I am about to start commuting into Washington DC and I am thinking of collecting statistics of my daily commute. I will try a month by VRE and a month by slugging, and I plan on marking times such as 1 when I leave my house 2 when I get to the VRE or slug parking lot 3 when I get to work 4 weather conditions or other notes on the day's commute. Do you plan on collecting information such as this for your research? It would be interesting to see how metro compares to slugging for time, reliability, ease, and other factors.

atrus Members Profile Find Members Posts New Slug Joined: 03 Nov 2006 Location: Maryland Status: Offline Points: 0	Post Options Post Reply Quote atrus Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 04 Nov 2006 at 6:32pm
	To everyone who has responded, thank you, you have been a great help to our team. To address slugdriverandslugrider's question about what exactly we are studying, I would be happy to provide more background on our research. We are entering a national competition for students studying design. With this competition, we have been asked to design a system which will increase the use of public transportation or decrease the number of cars on the road. We wanted to take a unique approach to increase the chance that our project is noticed, so we decided to focus on the slug system. If our proposal is one of the winners, I suppose the virginia department of transportation may actually learn of our proposal, but we have no intentions of creating actual tweaks to your system, this is only for our project and research. In a few days, we will return with some of our ideas and a few images which outline our design. From there, we hope everyone can give us feedback and insights into the direction we are going. Your responses have been very helpful to us so please keep responding. Thanks, Andy Trus

dickboyd Members Profile Find Members Posts New Slug Joined: 13 Nov 2004 Location: California Status: Offline Points: 0	Post Options Post Reply Quote dickboyd Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 05 Nov 2006 at 1:41am
	quote: Originally posted by atrus [br]To everyone who has responded, thank you, you have been a great help to our team. To address slugdriverandslugrider's question about what exactly we are studying, I would be happy to provide more background on our research. We are entering a national competition for students studying design. With this competition, we have been asked to design a system which will increase the use of public transportation or decrease the number of cars on the road. <> Thanks, Andy Trus Andy Trus, Thank you for the clarification. Are you including slugging as a subset of "public transportation"? If so, then be aware that treating slugging, ride sharing or HOV as "Public Transportation" has NOT been productive. The forces of evil [FOE](Sharon Bulova, Stan Parris, VRE and Steve Roberts) and the powers of darkness [POD](Ron Kirby, Dotty Cousineau, WMATA, Virginia Department of Rail, Joun Mason) frolic in overwhelming the ride sharing efforts of mere citizens. Slugs, van pools and car pool users asked for more parking near their homes. Passengers for the empty seats in the cars of the drive alones asked for mid day policing of the lots where their cars were parked in the suburbs. The forces of evil and the powers of darkness replied by taking the parking away and dedicating it to rail, METRO or "public transit" bus. At the same time the FOE and POD proclaimed that the parking would be "enhanced" for the people filling the empty seats in the cars of the drive alones. Enhanced, in the transit dictionary must mean "eliminate at any cost". FOE and POD reduced the HOV requirement from four to three. More in reaction to adverse comments from New Jersey in a Wall Street Journal article than in listening to the commuters on Shirley. Andy, you used the connector "or". As in "increase the use of public transportation OR decrease the number of cars on the road." Traditional "public transit" in the Shirley corridor results in MORE vehicles, in my experience. "Public transit" kills the mom and pop van pools and discourages "ad hoc" car pools (slugs). If the study is to "increase the use of public transportation AND decrease the number of cars on the road", then include the empty seats in the cars of the drive alones as "public transportation" and fill those empty seats before asking for more seats in the form of buses, trains, ferry boats or dirigibles. You might also contact VPSI, Van Pool Services Incorporated or Research Virginia Van Pool Association. The word "design" leaves me cold. "Public transit" uses that word "design" to mean use a bus or train, even if it is cost prohibitive, in my opinion. You can reach me at dickboyd@aol.com dickboyd@aol.com

n/a Members Profile Find Members Posts New Slug Joined: 17 Dec 2001 Location: VA Status: Offline Points: 0	Post Options Post Reply Quote n/a Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 07 Nov 2006 at 4:01pm
	These are all valid concerns. And slug participants have every right ot be suspicious of those who claim to do studies in the name of "harmless research." Many great, innovative systems like slugging have been ruined by those who have tried to "improve" on what existed. So when slugging participants respond with reluctance and skepticism, it is justified. And while I'm sure everyone supports your academic endeavours, the most important point anyone could take away from this discussion is that sluging has succeeded BECAUSE of its independence from government. It is independent, voluntary, self-governing, and FREE! ANY attempt to improve on this system that is not designed and implemented by those who participate in the system will fail and may do harm.

kgupta Members Profile Find Members Posts New Slug Joined: 20 Oct 2006 Status: Offline Points: 0	Post Options Post Reply Quote kgupta Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 07 Nov 2006 at 6:37pm
	Raymond, what you are saying is absolutely right. Actually what you just said becomes a really important part of our study. We do not want to propose something which ruins the basic essence of slugging, of it being independent of outside control. Infact it is one of our challenges. Please keep posting your views and comments. These are really helpful to us.