"Carpool program failing to gain members" -- $29,000 per car!!!

KATU - 2, Portland Oregon ^ | July 2, 2003

[Chad Fairbanks]

Well, it does bother me - BUt as I said, I filled it out specifically so I could tell them exactly where to shove it, and how far... ;0)

It is an opportunity I don't like to miss...

[kitkat]

LOL

[kitkat]

How do the HOV lanes get you to work 30 minutes earlier? Sounds interesting.

[VOA]

Jeeeze! What's with all you guys against public transportation?

Because it really sucks in many places.

I rode "The T" in Boston a few years ago...that worked well even if it was
over-crowded at peak hours.

But even here in Los Angeles, the MTA buses are what I call "The Voyage of The Damned"...
simply a home on wheels for burned-out dregs of society and the de-institutionalized insane.

The calls for "more mass transportation" in Southern California are simply the plea
of liberal yuppies to clear the interstates for their Volvos and Land Rovers.

And I say this as one of the few people in my lab area who regularly rides a local bus line.

[biblewonk]

Check out this thread when you get back from vacation. It's chock full of Neanderthals beating their massive, hairy chests while declaring the very concept of carpooling is fundamentally stupid.

It's really been pleasant being away from that sh*t.

[biblewonk]

But I don't understand why there would be a "program" that would cost that much.

[breakem]

Gees set up a web site for a few hundred bucks and let people work it out for themselves. People that want to car pool will put signs in their car windows and run ads in the paper. Why does the government design a camel everytime a horse is called for?

[TontoKowalski]

How do the HOV lanes get you to work 30 minutes earlier? Sounds interesting.

The main thoroughfare leading into the Pentagon in I-95/395. There are two lanes reserved for HOV. 3 or more in a car, I believe. It is WAY faster than the normal lanes, and a 30 minute time savings from, say, Springfield, is about right. There are pretty steep penalties for cars without the requisite passengers getting in the HOV lane, and the cops check pretty regularly.

That's why the Slug concept became so popular. Drivers pull up to bus station/metro station, and offer free ride to the Pentagon. Presto: the car gets to go on HOV.

As I said (see post #52) the Slug Line is quite an institution, with set rules and traditions. Very orderly. From a public policy perspective, however, it isn't really carpooling, since it doesn't take more cars off the road. It just decreases the amount of public transportation passengers.

[kitkat]

Thanks for the information.