Getting There

Vallejo once again 7:30 am
Drizzly and chilly, but cars are waiting. I’m in a Honda sedan. It’s immaculate and decked out with several Asian-charm chochkees hanging from the mirror and one tucked into a spot on the dashboard. The driver is a young Asian fellow. We’re listening to NPR.

He’s been in the bay area only a year – from Los Angeles, and he chuckles at the reactions he gets from his LA friends when he tells them about casual carpool. Typically, they are horrified to hear about a bunch of strangers jumping into each others’ cars. He loves the casual carpool and the time it saves him. The upcoming toll does not bother him – “it’s still a great deal”, he says.

This car is a light brown/beige both inside and out. I’ve been observing car colors for awhile, and have noticed that cars have become rather colorless during the last several years. Tans, grays, whites, dull blues and blacks began to dominate the freeway landscape about 4 years ago. I remember a jollier palette before then, with bright reds, yellows, electric blues and silvers.

I’ve attributed the glum years of George Bush, Iraq, the economy and the general despair of the times to the blah colors of our cars. I privately theorized that when Obama became Prez we would see brighter colors. Our freeways would bloom with yellows, cherry reds, oranges and golds.

I survey the freeway each day and am not seeing much of a change. Today for example it’s mostly blacks and grays with a number of whites thrown in. I am cheered to see several bright green cars but so far my theory has not come to pass.
Car manufacturers have been fighting to keep their heads above water on several fronts and now there are the Toyota troubles to add to all that. Perhaps they’re not inspired to turn out cars colored in cheer. And most people are not feeling very optimistic about much of anything these days.

Ah, here’s a sleek black Buick going past us followed by a gray SUV. A dark slate blue Toyota, several more black cars. Now there’s a silver hybrid – nice! an older light turquoise Thunderbird – very nice! And here comes two bright blue small cars – both Nissan, one a Nissan Versa, the other a 2-seater 350Z.

It’s a real lift to see a bright spot of color driving along. Maybe I’m looking at this backwards – instead of the mood of the economy, unemployment, mortgages and what ever happened to health care reform coloring our rides into blah grays and browns, perhaps a hot pink Honda Civic or a pale blue Corolla, a lime green Voyager, or a lavendar Rav4 are just what we need to turn this around. Keep watching.

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Vallejo 7:30 AM Cold rainy morning
Many cars waiting. My ride today is a bright red Nissan Pickup 2-seater. The driver is a 30-something jean-clad fellow, shaved head, goatee. His blue baseball cap lays on the dashboard. No heat, too bad.

Traffic is slow in all lanes this morning. Many trucks are out here today and that slows things down.

Did you see the front page story in yesterday’s SF Chronicle? Here’s the link: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2010/02/22/MNVO1C0D4I.DTL
;Toll Increase Creates Casual Carpool Conundrum

It’s a good review of the carpool toll issue written by Michael Cabanatuan and includes opinions from riders and drivers on how the toll will be handled by carpoolers themselves. To pay or not to pay if you’re a rider, and how much should you pay.

The driver drives this freeway every day and is resigned to the lengthy commute. He’s a man of strong opinions. He believes that letting hybrid cars use the carpool lane, regardless of the number of riders, has doomed the system. “All downhill from here”. He thinks it’s wrong to charge a toll for carpoolers, and he hates the cheaters (single drivers who use the carpool lane illegally). His keys are attached to a well worn length of a leather belt, which swings to and fro as we navigate the heavy traffic.

Approaching the bridge we pass a car with dark smoke rolling out of the engine. It’s trying to maneuver out of the lanes of traffic onto the shoulder.

The driver says “If you don’t change your oil, that’s what happens”.

A man to listen to.

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Friday, February 19, Vallejo 7:20 am

I choose the second car in line, a Honda van, rejecting the first car. I’ve ridden with that driver before and his driving is not so good. The lady driving today is doing a great job.  She’s wearing a black turtleneck and Friday jeans, clutching the ubiquitous silver and black metal coffee container.  Music is odd and discordant.  It’s a tape and sounds like the sound track for a sci-fi movie performed by an aboriginal tribe.  I’m in the back seat with the driver’s running shoes and her back pack.

My weekend is a short one – I came in to work on Saturday.  No car pools on Saturday so I opted to take BART, rather than drive and pay $24 to park in a lot.

Monday, February 22

Back on Monday through the thickest fog we’ve had yet.  I’m in the front seat of a Nissan sedan;  the other passenger is a tall 20-something guy who promptly goes to sleep.  I ask the driver about the big crack on his windshield, and he points to a spot where a rock hit the glass and the crack spread.  He theorizes that the cold weather contracted the glass and caused the crack.   The car is warm and comfortable.    The fog lightens and the traffic thickens as we near Richmond.  We’re moving along nicely in the carpool lane.

I ask the driver how he feels about the new toll that goes into effect July1 for carpool drivers.  Although he’s a regular driver he hasn’t paid much attention to the toll issue.  As long as he doesn’t have to stop at the toll plaza he’s okay with it.  I assure him that the carpool will be fast track (transponder) only.  He was also unaware that many riders are happy to contribute to the toll.

CAR ETIQUETTE

There seems to be a general consensus on car pool etiquette, that says ‘Drivers Rule’.  This means radio, heat, conversation, food, etc. are all at the discretion of the driver. Most of the time this works fine and I think the person handling the horrible job of driving on bay area freeways needs every perk he or she can get.

However – there have been a few instances where it has seemed unfair and even outrageous.  One bad radio experience  I had was in a 2 person pickup truck.  The driver had Rush Limbaugh on LOUD for the entire ride.  This was during the Bush administration.  My politics are about as far away from Limbaugh as you can get, and my blood pressure just kept going up as we rode along.  Finally, when we arrived at our destination, I told the driver how I felt – that to have a strongly politically biased station on in a shared ride is out of line.  He looked dumbfounded.

I’ve also had to endure long tapes of gospel sermons and loud rap music.  Educational, perhaps, but more than I like to take in at 7:30 in the morning on an hour-long ride.   And if you’ve been reading my postings, you know I’ve had many unhappy rides in  cold cars.

I’d like to hear from other car poolers about how they handle this.

Although we don’t do the driving, we do make it possible for the driver to use the advantages of the carpool lane.  In this ‘casual’ system, where it’s pretty much the luck of the draw,  we all still  have  choices – common sense behavior and courtesy for one thing, who we ride with and coming up soon, how we’ll deal with the toll issue.

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Vallejo, 7:20 am

Light rain and, thankfully, plenty of cars.  I join a driver and another passenger in a lovely car I’ve been in before.  This is a KIA Amanti, a wide comfy, deliciously warm sedan.  Fake but tastefully done wood paneling on the dash.  An attractive African American woman is driving, wearing a brilliantly multi-colored blouse with a wrist full of bright beaded bracelets.  It’s Friday light on the freeway and we make good time going the speed limit all the way to the bridge.  It’s at the toll plaza where I always feel smug about being a casual carpooler.  All those cars backed up waiting for fast track or to pay the toll, even today, a light Friday. We whiz right by the 6 lanes of non-moving cars.

As we enter the bridge I ask the driver how she feels about paying a toll come July 1.  “I think the riders should pay the driver”, she says without a pause.  I agree with her, but add that I think the toll is not a good idea for the carpool program.   She and  the gentleman in the back seat enthusiastically agree.  They feel that many people who regularly drive will stop picking up passengers once the toll is in place. She thinks she will stop driving, maybe start taking BART.

We arrive at the Fremont Street drop off, and wish each other a good day, and  ‘Happy Valentine’s’.    The Chinese New Year of the Tiger begins on Sunday, April 14, so it’s a double holiday along with Valentine’s Day.  A triple holiday this weekend, with Monday being the holiday for Presidents’ Day.

No commuting for 3 days!  Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Filed under: Casual Carpooling, commute, casual car pool, Today's Commute, Tolls for car pools | 3 Comments »