I live in the East Bay, Oakland to be exact. Since the rise of gasoline prices well into the $4 a gallon range, I have committed to either using mass transit (BART, MUNI) or to regularly participate in the casual carpool. I also limited use of my personal car as sole driver/passenger.
For the uninitiated, Casual Carpool is mostly an East Bay phenomenon. A driver can pick up passengers at designated locations, access and cross the Bay Bridge using the carpool lane (High Occupancy Vehicle --HOV) and pay a nominal $2.50 toll per car.
Why would someone practice this habit? There are many advantages: from an Ecological standpoint, three passengers sharing one automobile is better for the environment (less gas use, less carbon emissions, get it). From a time management vantage point, you zip pass many single driver autos waiting to cross the toll plaza and the "metering lights" as they approach the bridge. Both are sources of traffic back up, adding upwards of 30 to 60 minutes to one's commute. The third is financial, as a driver on the HOV lane paying only $2.50 vs. the $6 toll charged during commute hours.
Recently, casual carpool passengers donate $1 per person to the driver, thus costing me only .50 cents out of pocket. If you were to do the math, I now spend $2.50 a week to cross the bridge, which otherwise would cost me $30. In addition, if you were to convert the time saved from sitting in traffic and multiply it by your hourly salary, the savings is considerable.
Why then, are there not more casual carpool participation, you ask?
Illustrative of other people's responses and quips, are in order to partly explain my answer to the question above. Upon disclosing I am a casual carpool passenger or driver others would comment: "Isn't it dangerous?" "Why do you do it?" "Wow, I can't see myself doing that."
A little personal history, I have been a casual car pool-er since the mid-80's when I lived in Alameda and would accept a ride on Santa Clara Avenue and Broadway, where the bus bound for San Francisco stopped. From that time onward, to my recollection or knowledge, there have been no news reported (real or virtual) about incidences involving the casual carpool (driver or passenger). No robbery, no kidnapping, no rapes! Dangerous it is not, if you were to compare that to the occasional assaults, robberies involving weapons directed to drivers, or passengers on Muni or AC Transit. I would opt for the casual carpool as a safer bet.
Why do you do it? Perhaps, inherent in the question, is "don't you have a car?" or "you must be having car problems." Truly, I save a lot of time, some money, and I am not angst nor fret to inaction about how much damage to my immediate environment I contribute too. It makes sense, dummy.
"You cannot see yourself doing it?" That is a limitation you have imposed on yourself, certain there are other aspects of your life which you cannot imagine you are able to do. I will steer away from the underlying psychological underpinnings of such behavior and choice. Needless to say, you are less likely to travel abroad, less likely to have an interest in other cultures, and less likely to watch/read NPR/PBS or other such culture elitist practices.
To say, I do not feel virtuous about my practice. It is an effective strategy, time and money saver; minimizes traffic hangovers, and my small contribution to keeping the beautiful skies of the Bay Area blue.
Here are a few observations as to who and why I believe carpool participants are less "consumptive" or challenge the grain on the American need for cars, time is money, and the "private space, or personal bubble" adherents.
Most of my fellow car-poolers are working class or white collar professionals, bound for work in SF Financial District, Downtown businesses, or transfer to local transit systems to their work site. As part of the group, we recognize and accept the cost of living in the Bay being outrageous, nor would we want to live elsewhere. Casual carpool is but one way to support our staying here. There are amongst us avowed recyclers, urban farmers, dwellers in intentional living situations, thus casual carpool is part of our make up as residents in the region.
There are some among us, myself included, when the company albeit mostly anonymous of two is preferred to the company of the masses who ride public transit. Sometimes, a respite from packed-in crowds of bus and train is welcome.
Other sensible reasons for casual carpool, beyond time, money and crowds; if you plan well, rarely are you late, resulting from scheduling or breakdowns of the complicated mass transit systems we use. For others, it is truly more convenient to walk to the designated casual carpool pick up spot, than to walk to the bus or Bart stop, sometimes they are in the same place, you have an option.
The well-worn argument of car ownership as symbol of freedom needs reexamination and perhaps a more nuanced or an adaptive approach to our present day situation. To say, what is effective and wise use of resources available for human beings? Gas prices are going up and will stay in the stratospheric range we Americans dread, once it crosses a certain threshold example $4 a gallon, it is unlikely to go the opposite direction. Air pollution is part of our lives, the insult to the injury of destroying our planet to serve our needs for petroleum, agribusiness/farming/cattle-raising, and “homes.” Fossil fuel and land mass are finite.
Secondly, cars are generally recognized as status symbols whether richer, better looking, smarter, whatever hook advertising and the car industry can use to bring you into the show room to purchase one. They will use it. Am I secure enough to know that a car is purely material, yes.
Third and perhaps most risky to state, cars can be the excuse for being overweight or obese. Think about it, fat Americans driving big cars, needed to haul their mass. Little publicly discussed, whether in polite company or not, a reason to explain the increase in sale in the cross over Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) category. It is not because as a group, we “American” are recreating in the great outdoors with gear and need for cargo space or four wheel drive vehicles. Is there collusion between food producers and auto manufacturers? Perhaps a more specific question is, Are Americans buying bigger cars, or cross over SUV? And is there an epidemic in obesity? Not to say they are correlated, but observation is a powerful tool for examining what is happening.
Truth be told, over sized American populace can barely shimmy their way into “Imports,” I’ve witnessed it first-hand. We have seen Imports also catering to the American heft, by producing over powered, over accessorized and over sized version of their earlier entrants into the American market.
Casual carpool-ers can wear their badge, or wave their flags a little more vigorously. To some degree you are among the vanguard into the realm of redefinition of consumption.
Just saying.
