Slugs is the term that is used for this very grassroots system they have here for commuters coming in from Virginia (forgive me if I've already spoken about slugs...it's raining and gloomy here today so my brain is not fully functioning. Sluggish! I think I may have as Donna at work picks up Slugs every day...)
There are huge park 'n' ride lots in the Virginian suburbs. There are buses that pick up from these lots and head into several main transfer terminals (Pentagon, Rosslyn etc) however I'm told that these buses can take up to an hour and half to drop you at a metro station. Because of this, the Slug system emerged. A Slug is a person who needs a ride. Slugs will form lines depending on where they want to be dropped off (there are no signs or anything, the slugs all just know...). Drivers will pick up a certain number of Slugs and drop them off at one point in DC. No money is exchanged, the benefit to the driver is that they get to use the HOV lanes and therefore get in to town faster.
But there are rules. In fact there are websites devoted to the Slug rules. A Slug does not have to accept a ride and can wave a car off and get in the next one. Slugs are not to touch the radio. Slugs are not to speak unless the driver initiates conversation. And on and on. I admire it on one hand as it seems to be so efficient, but on the other, it's all a bit weird.
I think this makes me a little uncomfortable. It's a combination of the term 'Slug' and the no talking rule.
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