Our local transit agency has a shelter next to one of the commuter lots near a bus line into the city.
They put up a special sign designating it as a Share Ride meeting spot.
There’s a disclaimer that you should decide for yourself if and who you will give a ride to.
So far, I’ve only been able to give rides to a few maitronly types. Everyone else makes me leery.
It’s known as ‘casual carpool’ in the Bay Area. I know a few friends that use it currently or used to, pretty much everyday to get to and from work.
If I lived in one of the areas I’d probably either use it or offer rides to be able to use the HOV lane; there aren’t any that I know of this far north though.
If it is someone I would talk to on a bar while waiting for my beer, yes, why not?
It’s known as slugging in the DC area.
There is a slug line outside of my office building. Around 4 or 4:30 every afternoon, people start gathering on the corner, and a line of cars forms and picks up people going to the same area so that they can get on the HOV lanes on I-66 (which means getting home much faster).
I personally would not be too comfortable doing it. It would just feel a little awkward having to spend 30 minutes sitting with a stranger every day, feeling like you have to make small talk or whatever. But apparently it is pretty popular in the DC area.
How is it much different than hitchhiking?
It has been a few years but I enjoyed meeting new people. Go with your gut on trust. That little voice in the back of your head is pretty smart.
Don’t feel that you have to make small talk. They may feel the same way.
A good male friend years ago picked up a hitcher and, after a few minutes of pleasantries, asked the hitcher if he was nervous about getting into the car of strangers. The hitcher said no and produced a revolver from underneath his clothes.
My friend ditched him at the first gas station he could find.
a few what now?
Whoah, I’ve never heard of this, but I think it sounds pretty cool. I have a 50 minute commute each way, so I’d totally do this if I didn’t already have a carpool. I’m sure you’d end up with some creeps, and some pretty cool people. Just like encounters in general, I suppose. I can’t imagine it working here, as NM doensn’t really facilitate the idea (there are no HOV lanes, for example).
As mentioned up thread, it is very common in the DC suburbs. There are areas where people line up for people looking for passengers so they can qualify for the HOV lanes and they are very busy. I briefly lived in Springfield and I couldn’t even get to the slug line from my house without some stranger pulling up and asking if I was going to the Pentagon (site of a metro stop).
Hitchhiking was my primary mode of transportation in the early '70s. You have to go with your gut, but I see no problem with doing it. If you ride with someone and you hit it off, you could make it a regular thing, thereby cancelling out the need to ride with strangers every day. I think it’s a great idea, the thing they have going in DC.
I’ve been known to take hitchhikers. The last two were an Irish short order cook and his dog, who’d moved to Spain following a girl (I took him from Zaragoza to Valencia) and a kid who turned out to live two blocks from my just-bought house.
Never had a problem.
Hell yes. I think it’s great to encourage hitchhiking. I miss doing it. I was thinking about trying to hitchhike down to the Home Depot as I don’t have a car where I’m at right now.
The last hitchhiker that I picked up explained that the blood all over his head was from having gotten beat up on his previous ride. He had just gotten out of prison and was heading home to Marin County to his mom’s house. I dropped him off at SFO and gave him bus fare as after all, it was Christmas Eve.
Frankly, if I had known that he just got out of prison, I probably wouldn’t have picked him up.
Honey, I’ve shared a lot more than rides with strangers.
I used to slug pretty regularly when I worked in the District. Never had a ride that really creeped me out, nor did I ever give a ride to anyone who really creeped me out. One time I rode with someone who made me nauseous because the entire drive he was GASbrakeGASbrakeGASbrakeGASbrakeGASbrake - my head was getting snapped back and forth. That was the worst, fortunately (though I did once refuse to get in the very back seat of a 2-door where I couldn’t have sat upright). Someone else made the news when he glanced up from his newspaper to see the car he was riding in heading for the median. The driver had passed out. He grabbed the wheel and saved their lives. The driver came to, said “Huh?” and drove off as if nothing had happened. :eek:
Sexual favors? Drugs? Colds?
At work we’ve got a bunch of mailing lists for employees who want to hook up for the HOV commute - this is necessary since rush hour commute can take about 2 hours to go under 20 miles in crow-flies-distance.
This sounds a lot like slugging, except that we all work for the same company and theoretically can figure out who to nail if something happens. 
We generally don’t know the other folks other than email name, etc. So far, I haven’t had a problem, other than my craptastic sense of direction.
I once thumbed a cab driver down and paid him with a joint to drive me a couple miles during a cold Boulder winter. Creative transportation!
Obvious typo for matronly.
Main Entry: ma·tron·ly
Pronunciation: 'mA-tr&n-lE
Function: adjective
: having the character of or suitable to a matron […c : the chief officer in a women’s prison]
I’d share a ride with a stranger, but first I’d make sure his middle name wasn’t Wayne.
A few weeks ago, a woman here in the bay area gave a ride to a couple of people coming from Oakland to San Francisco as part of the regular “casual carpool”. She dropped off a woman, and the remaining man passenger then threatened her and stole her car. He tried to kidnap her in the process, but she managed to jump out. I never heard if they caught the guy, although they had a good description of him.