Happy August! An amazingly long line of cars, winding around the block, a few riders walking up to the line. But wait – as we pull into the carpool area, here are 2 girls en route to the line, who have decided to just jump into the last car in the line. Nice for the driver, he won’t have to wait 10 or 15 minutes, or more, like everyone else! Bad for the drivers waiting patiently in the line ahead. It’s not nice to cheat, carpoolers!
I am in the front seat of a Toyota Camry. Asian-american older fellow driving. No talk, just barely a hello. The rear passenger pays $1.25 – not me, I’m paying a dollar, take it or leave it. The heat is on and it’s cozy in the car. We breeze along at 60 mph, sorry for the other 3 lines that seem to be stuck in gridlock. The congested traffic in the non-carpool lanes continues for 5 or 6 miles and then mysteriously ends. It is gray and foggy, and getting foggier by the minute. The driver has to turn on his wipers to clear the drizzle. Across the bay from Berkeley, San Francisco has become invisible in the fog. We round the Eastshore Park passing the shoreline ponds and there is a young (or very small) egret, clumsily splashing about all by himself. En route to carpool this morning I saw a group of Canadian Geese, browsing through the grasses in a roadside park. The bird migrations south must be beginning.
And summer is nearly over. The summer we only glimpsed for a week or two in May.
Filed under: Car Pooling, Car Pooling Etiquette, Casual Carpool Bay Area, Casual Carpooling, commute, casual car pool, Environment, San Francisco Commuters, Today's Commute, Tolls for car pools, Uncategorized |
Getting There 
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