Slugging Statistics

I was trying to find a picture of an ad that I saw on the side of a Metro bus for slugging (Sidenote: I think that's hilarious. They're supporting a different form of commuting that's free and doesn't benefit them? I couldn't find a picture of it so I'll have to do some scouring on the road if traffic is bad one day) and I came across this slugging thread: http://www.city-data.com/forum/northern-virginia/855393-have-you-tried-slugging-do-you-3.html.

This is the excerpt that I found interesting:

"Total persons using the HOV lanes are 52,600 in the 6:30-9:30 a.m. time frame. In comparison, Metrorail carried 41,300 passengers across the cordon and VRE carried 4,310 passengers. The remaining roadways to the core area carry 87,280 people in 80,000 autos and 4,400 bus passengers during the 6:30-9:30 a.m. time period.

The Shirley Highway HOV facility is the best example in the region of a successful HOV operation. From 6:30-9:30 a.m. in 2002, the two HOV lanes carried a total of 31,650 people in 8,635 vehicles, compared to the four conventional lanes which carried 23,510 people in 21,310 vehicles. The Blue and Yellow lines of the Metrorail service in this corridor carried 16,700 people in the same time period.

That's an average of 3.7 people per vehicle in the HOV lanes, and 1.1 people per vehicle in the regular lanes."

 In summary, in 2002 the two HOV lanes stats from 6:30-9:30am on I-395 (Shirley Highway) were as follows:

HOV: 31,650 people in 8,635 vehicles
Regular lanes: 23,510 people in 21,310 vehicles.

That would be why the regular 395 lanes are usually so much more packed than the HOV lanes. Captain Obvious? Maybe. Still an interesting stat. And I'm not really a big stat person. My number of strike-outs in college was too far above what I'd have liked for me to be one. 

Slugging Success

Since I've gotten my route down, slugging has been working even better for me. It only takes me about 4-5 minutes to get to the Pentagon in the afternoon leaving Crystal City to pick up slugs, and that's just because of stoplights and the traffic cops at the Pentagon. Then it usually takes me about 15-20 minutes to get back to the slug lot once I pick up slugs. I'm usually only on the HOV lanes for about 6-8 minutes. Sometimes it seems longer because of the distance I'm covering in that short time, but typically I am going 60-70 mph on the HOV lanes (it's ok, Dad, even though I know you aren't reading this, the speed limit is 65).

Seemed fitting.

Once I exit the HOV lane, it only takes about 10 minutes to get back to the slug lot because I take the Parkway instead of Old Keene Mill Road. OKM road in the afternoon is seriously painful. The Parkway doesn't get bad until right after the exit that I take to drop off slugs, so it goes much more quickly than OKM. I feel like I have inside info knowing this, because I think about 90% of the slug drivers going to Rolling Valley lot take OKM road in the afternoon. If you suggest this to the riders, they are usually more than happy about it, and is another way to achieve "prototype slug driver" status.

A couple days ago, I hit every light, picked up slugs immediately at the Pentagon, and traffic was great on the HOV lane. I think it took me maybe 22 minutes to get home. It was heavenly. That used to be the amount of time it took me to walk down to the slug line in DC. Seriously, sometimes it's the little things that get you through the day.

CC Walker-Talker

I picked up slugs both this morning and yesterday morning. It's been reliable for me in the morning lately, and I definitely prefer picking up slugs and getting on the HOV lane to sitting in the crawling traffic.

Yesterday I actually had riders that were going to Crystal City. Up until then, each time I picked up slugs in the morning I was dropping them off at the Pentagon. I'll pull up and say Crystal City or Pentagon, because Crystal City riders are kind of hit or miss to find and are rarer than Pentagon riders. I was glad I finally got some CC riders because it's less out of my way and the traffic at the HOV exit is much better once you split off from the Pentagon drivers and go to the right instead of sitting in the line that turns left. I did end up going out of my way to drop them off a little further into CC than where my parking garage is. But I kind of felt like that was me "giving back" again as a former-passenger because I've had drivers that have gone a little bit out of their way so that they could drop me off closer to work, and it's just nice. Plus I had no idea where the "normal" drop-off for CC was, so I just went with the flow.

Today I went back to the Pentagon to drop slug off, and one of my riders was definitely a talker. Not to say that I mind, because it usually makes the time go faster and I like meeting new people and socializing, anyways. But it does depend on the person. Sometimes as a driver (or even as a passenger before) I just wanted the other people in the car to be quiet for one reason or another. If it gets to that point it's probably because they are obnoxious or annoying, because ask B, I like to talk. All of my afternoon slugs have been quiet and I just play my country music and tell myself if they don't like it, oh well.

I found out this guy usually goes to CC but just that day he had to go to the Pentagon. So I'm sure I'll be seeing him again. I heard parts of his life story, we talked about slugging patterns and odd slugging stories, and he asked about my job, etc. The normal traffic conversations, discussing the new building off 395 that has no commuting plan whatsoever and is going to be a massive headache when workers are transitioned there, the usual slug convos. It did make time go faster and he didn't question the status of my university or anything like that. (My last "talker" asked me if Penn was a real Ivy league school or a fake one, because he thought it was a fake one.  And was I sure it was a real one? Well, it's not as GOOD as the other ones, right? I should have said, we're the party school Ivy, and left it at that.) The ride took about thirty minutes total, so not too bad.

I'd seen that guy before when I used to be a passenger, and just from standing in line I knew he was a talker. So I knew what to expect when he came over to my car. I don't know names so I'll dub him CC walker-talker. Apparently he walks back and forth between the Pentagon and CC a lot, whether to the Pentagon slug lot in the afternoon or if he can't get a ride to Crystal City in the morning. It's not far, and I'm pretty sure a lot of people do that because the Pentagon slug lot is just easier to get rides to and from.

Oddball Slug Lot

S goes to a different slug lot than me, and their system is a little different. The lot she goes to is much smaller than the one I go to in the morning. Their lot is structured so that on one side of the lot is a line of people and cars that go over the 14th street bridge, and on the other side is a line that goes over the Memorial Bridge into DC. This is as opposed to both of the other lots I've gone to where everyone stands in one line, and all the cars are in one line corresponding to it. The benefits of this are that in case the driver changes their mind because of the lack of riders, or if the riders change their destination due to the lack of cars, they can adjust and won't have to change sides of the lot or anything.

It's also different from the lot I go to in that, some of the drivers get out of their car and approach the line of slugs to see where everyone's destination is and just wait there until they find two riders. That's very strange to me. Why would you want to get out of your car into the cold or heat to wait for riders when you could sit in your car and listen to the radio or something. Plus it just makes everything disorganized. It's hard to tell the difference between drivers and riders when you show up, so there's a lot more confusion created and clarification necessary. Seems less efficient.

The benefits of her lot are that all of the drivers go into DC so she doesn't have as wide a range of destinations to weed through (can be a down-side, too, but in our case it's a benefit) and that the lot is right next to the Mixing Bowl and the entry point for the HOV lane on 395. Half of the traffic that I sit in on my morning commute is getting to 395, so she is lucky to get on the HOV lanes basically right away after she gets into a car. Somehow, even though my morning lot is the largest one, there's always more drivers in the afternoon going to her lot, too. I think just because the drivers from my lot go to such a wide range of destinations as opposed to a few specific locations.

I'd go to her lot in the morning, but the traffic going that way from my house is ridiculous and the lot I go to is so close to my house. Plus as I like to tease S about, their system is the oddball out of all the lots so far as I've heard. Too weird for me, I think. She gets some good stories though, more to come from S.

Cutting in Line

My friend S who I have mentioned before also slugs into work, and happens to work with me as well. She told me about one of her mornings at the slug lot last week and it brings up another understood rule of slugging--one that's very tempting to break sometimes, especially on rainy days, and I admit I've broken a couple of times, too.

As she was walking up to her lot last week, a driver in a taxi cab* asked her where she was going. She said, "Over there," and pointed to the slug line. I laughed at her pleasant response to the man, as her tone clearly came across as 'do not disturb.' He clarified asking her where in DC she was headed, and she told him. He said he'd take her, and here's what's wrong with the situation: He wasn't behind the other drivers waiting his turn to pick up the riders in line, he was basically scavenging the lot for riders arriving at the lot to pick them up before they got to the line. In short, he was cutting. This really takes us back to our 2nd grade selves waiting in line for the water fountain after recess, I know. But slugging is a very polite system in theory and people that do this are often scoffed at by their fellow sluggers.

I've been on both sides of it. When you're standing there in line and waiting for cars to come it's very frustrating when you see a car swing around and pick up people walking to the slug line. Unless it's an organized carpool, it usually makes the people in line shake their heads or sigh, as they're left to wait for more cars as the people that just arrived at the lot get a ride immediately. There is another rule that says if the driver knows someone in line and yells out their name to see if they want to get in, they can get in. I haven't seen this happen at the lot I go to now, but I have seen it once or twice elsewhere. But that's different from skimming the parking lot to catch riders before they get to the line. In my experience though, even when I see drivers who know someone in line, they still follow the general protocol and take the first 2 or 3 riders, and then just say hello to their friend as they pass them.

When I used to go to a different lot in the morning, I had to walk alongside part of a neighborhood road to get to the lot, since the lot had minimal parking spots. There was one lady who lived in one of the houses nearby, who would drive around and ask where people were headed as they walked towards the lot. I tried to decline her request at first, because I knew it wasn't really fair to the people in line. The next time she asked I got in and felt kind of guilty as we drove past the lot and there were people waiting. I saw her pretty frequently, and one time she said she'd just give me a ride to the lot and if there were no cars I could ride with her. I ended up getting out of her car because the line of cars was so long when we pulled up. It got to the point though where we knew each other and if she had other people with her I didn't feel so bad about going with her. I only rode with her a couple more times, but that's actually how I met my first "slugging friend" who ironically drops her son off at my boyfriend's mother's house for daycare. Small world.

With all the variables of slugging protocol, I'd say in general there's certainly riders who have no remorse about breaking the understood rule that driver's shouldn't scoop up slugs without getting in line and will get right in without looking back. There's also occasions where some will take the opportunity when it's handed to them, but I think the majority of slugs would turn down a ride from a random driver offered in this manner out of courtesy to the other slugs and drivers. Maybe that's me being naive, but from what I've experienced, at least at the lot I go to in the morning, is that slugs have a certain courtesy for other slugs. The afternoon line is a whole different story...

*Taxi cabs only have to have one other person in their car to use the HOV lane.