Slugging

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For the baseball statistic, see Slugging average.

Slugging is a form of commuting that essentially combines a variation of "ride-share" commuting and hitchhiking. While the practice is most common and most publicized in the Washington, D.C. area (where it is primarily used by commuters who live in Northern Virginia), slugging is also used in San Francisco, Pittsburgh, and other cities.[1]

In order to relieve some traffic volume during the morning and evening rush hours, several states have created "High Occupancy Vehicle" (or HOV) lanes that provide separate facilities for vehicles carrying a certain number of passengers. A situation came about whereby drivers wanted to use the HOV lanes but either didn't know any coworkers who lived nearby, or didn't want to get involved in a complicated arrangement that forces three or more people to coordinate their work schedules.

The solution that arose involved the creation of free, unofficial ad-hoc carpool networks, complete with published routes and pickup and drop off locations. During the morning rush, people looking for free rides into DC ("sluggers") park their cars at designated pickup locations (usually "Park and Ride" free parking lots for carpoolers) and then walk to the queue for the route with the designated dropoff location they want a ride to.

Drivers pull up to the queue for the route they will follow and either display a sign or call out to the first person in line the designated dropoff point they are willing to drive to and how many passengers they can take. The first person in line will then turn around and repeat the information loud enough for the others in line to hear. Enough riders step forward to fill the car and the driver heads off towards the city. There are a number of unofficial rules to the arrangement:

No talking unless the driver initiates
No open windows unless all passengers approve
No money will ever be exchanged or requested
The driver is in full control of the radio, meaning that if the driver is to turn on the radio, passengers cannot request a station or volume change
Drivers are not to pick up sluggers who are not in line

In the evening rush hour, the entire process is reversed. Sluggers go to a designated pickup point for the route they wish to ride on, and wait for a driver to arrive going to their designated dropoff location.

The arrangement benefits everyone, since the sluggers get a free ride in and out of the city, the drivers get a free pass to use the less-congested HOV lanes, the traffic load is reduced due to the higher frequency of carpooling, and the environment benefits by having fewer cars on the road idling in stop-and-go traffic.

There are checks and balances to the system. Websites have been created where sluggers can post warnings about the driving habits and behaviors of particular drivers. Some drivers have been known to react with outward anger when they see a slugger taking down their car's license plate, presuming that the slugger will be posting a warning to not accept rides from that driver, potentially ending that driver's ability to use the HOV lanes.