Casual Carpooling (Slugging in DC) (Free 60-minute webinar recorded Feb. 2010)

David LeBlanc (webmaster of www.slug-lines.com and author of “Slugging: The Commuting Alternative”) and Marc Oliphant (Urban planner with the U.S. Navy, author of 2008 survey and report about slugging) 

The presence of High Occupancy Vehicle lanes (HOV lanes) on a major interstate highway in a suburb of Washington, D.C. has spawned a unique, casual form of carpooling called "slugging". A driver needing additional passengers to meet the required three-person minimum to use an HOV lane can pull up to a known “slug line” (pick-up location) such as an existing park and ride lot, transit station or shopping plaza. He/she displays a sign or calls out his or her destination in central Washington (eg. the Pentagon) and the “slugs” (passengers) first in line for that particular destination get in the car and proceed. While slugging also occurs in other American cities, it is most prevalent in the Washington DC area. There may be as many as 10,000 regular slugs using I-95 HOV lanes south of the Pentagon during the morning HOV-restricted period, with approximately one in four cars carrying slugs. How replicable is this approach to other cities? David provided both an international and local (DC) perspective; Marc presented recent slugging survey data for DC.