Mass transit fans, please take note

The power of voluntary interactions and self-organizing systems continues to amaze. Read about slugging.

Slugging is a term used to describe a unique form of commuting found in the Washington, DC area sometimes referred to as "Instant Carpooling" or "Casual Carpooling". It's unique because people commuting into the city stop to pickup other passengers even though they are total strangers! However, slugging is a very organized system with its own set of rules, proper etiquette, and specific pickup and drop-off locations.  It has thousands of vehicles at its disposal, moves thousands of commuters daily, and the best part, it’s FREE.

For the rules and etiquette, see here.

(I may be super-naive, but why can't the City of Angels emulate this?)

Comments

[jorod]

We used to call it hitchhiking.

[Mr. Econotarian]

The Virginia I-95 slugging works particularly well because of the large number of government employees living in the suburbs going to a small number of locations in the city. There are really only seven "destinations" (14th street corridor, 19th street corridor, Ballston, Crystal City, Pentagon, Navy Yard, Rosslyn). And every one of these destinations is meshed with the Metro subway anyway.

L.A.'s industries are far less centralized than DC's, and the rapid transit is far more sparse.

That said:

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/rid/
http://www.erideshare.com/carpool.php?city=Los%20Angeles

[Abdul]

The perception that it's inconvenient and unsafe?

Wouldn't these slug groups evolve into a carpool?