Slugging: A Great Way to Carpool in Washington, D.C

Environmentalists will be the first to tell you that carpooling is a wonderful thing. In fact, many people probably agree with environmentalists that carpooling is great because it reduces the amount of limited resources we use, not to mention that it reduces the sheer volume of greenhouse gases that we produce. Carpooling can make us breathe easier for a lot of reasons.

Yet, most people simply refuse to do it. Carpooling goes against our natures as independent beings. We like having our own little space on our way to work in the morning and home in the afternoon. We know it would be good for the world if we didn't think that way, but we just can't help it. You know it's true and I do as well.

But in Washington, D.C., people carpool. Not the majority, by any means. But a larger chunk of people to work in D.C. probably carpool than in other areas of the country. And that is because of slugging.

Here's how slugging works:

People who are not driving into the city stand in line to wait for drivers who are going near where they are going to pick them up. If a driver can wind up with at least three people in his car, then he can use the HOV, or carpool, lane. Since not that many people carpool, that lane is much less crowded and so the people who use it avoid the traffic jams. They get to work much more quickly and both driver and passengers are satisfied with the arrangement.

What we have here is carpooling without actual altruism. Yet it works as a symbiotic relationship. Of course, if everyone did this, the HOV lane would slow down considerably, but there would be far fewer cars on the road in the first place, and the other lanes would speed up considerably. Plus, the pollution in the D.C. air would drop like a stone.

It doesn't matter that everyone is carpooling to help themselves, not to help the world. What matters is that they're carpooling in the first place. Maybe what the world needs is more of these type situations. Maybe we need to make it easier for people to do good things, create situations that benefit the individual when the individual benefits society. If we can just harness the power of human nature, there is no telling what we can accomplish.