CA: Could Bay Area's traffic nightmares bring back casual carpool?

Before COVID shutdowns took hold in 2020, Kuan Butts had a breezy commute from Oakland to San Francisco — by catching rides with strangers.

Every morning he joined the rush-hour throngs at Monte Vista and Oakland avenues, an intersection in the Grand Lake neighborhood where cars lined up at the curb to pick up passengers. From about 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. the street served as a meeting point for casual carpools, marked only by a small red sign. Anyone could climb into a vehicle, offer $1 for gas, and be in the Financial District within 15 minutes.

These arrangements held benefits for both sides: Drivers got discounted bridge tolls and access to faster diamond lanes; passengers got swift, comfortable trips.

But when the pandemic closed offices and prompted fears of viral transmission, especially in an enclosed space like a car, it killed this grassroots staple of Bay Area commuting. Now, carpool enthusiasts are trying, valiantly, to revive it.

"I definitely think it would have a lot of value," said Butts, who takes the Transbay bus to work these days. Waiting at the bus stop, he gazes nostalgically at the old carpool site across the street. For a while, an abandoned car sat there until authorities removed it. Months passed and the sign faded.

Every so often Butts tries standing at the corner "out of curiosity," to see if a motorist pulls up. Since 2020 it hasn't happened, he said.

Casual carpools had served the Bay Area for decades, moving thousands of people across the Bay Bridge each day in what Butts called "a fever dream of collective action." Launched amid transit service meltdowns in the 1970s, the ad hoc movement evolved into an organized system. Passengers would stand during peak hours at one of 20 designated locations, typically near freeway entrances or at transit centers.

Drivers dropped people off at Howard Street in the Financial District. Those who wanted to share rides home in the evenings could pick up passengers on Beale Street, before heading back to the East Bay.

Over time, carpoolers developed a standard etiquette. Riders chipped in a dollar to cover fuel and road tolls. Drivers avoided blasting the radio, beyond light music or news from NPR. People didn't have to engage in conversation.

Fans of this transportation mode hope it might start up again as people return to offices. Some wonder whether the conditions will change in September, when drivers of zero-emission vehicles lose access to diamond lanes and have a stronger incentive to carpool. Others predict that traffic and bridge toll misery will have to reach a nadir for carpooling to gain traction. Or it could be resurrected to supplement public transit, if budget constraints force BART and AC Transit to scale back service.

A few true believers say people just need motivation. Carpooling advocates have tried nudging the culture back to life with petitions, Facebook groups and online surveys. Software developers have made apps to connect motorists and passengers.

Jono Finger, one of the East Bay's most spirited crusaders for traditional ride-sharing, has gone so far as to stand at the North Berkeley BART station pick-up spot, holding a hand-made " San Francisco carpool" sign.

"I never gave up trying," Finger said, noting that he'll generally wait on the curb for 10 minutes, to see if any drivers pull up. When they don't, he turns around and takes BART.

"My last successful pick-up was maybe a year ago," Finger said.

Susan Shaheen, a professor in-residence of civil and environmental engineering at UC Berkeley, became fascinated with this "pop-up transportation solution," and how it created a permission structure for people to hop in cars with strangers. When Shaheen studied the phenomenon in 2014, her data suggested that 6,000 riders and 3,000 drivers were carpooling each morning — enough to make a small dent in bridge traffic.

"As long as you were heading into the city before 10 a.m., there were always cars picking up," said Jazmin Soltero, who regularly hitched carpools from the Lakeshore Avenue stop near Interstate 580 until COVID hit. As a carpool rider, Soltero learned the rhythms of morning traffic. Many people dropped their kids off at school around 8 a.m. and rolled to the carpool site right afterward. A passenger who arrived by 8:30 a.m. would find a large queue of expectant drivers.

"It was such an affordable, convenient way to get to the city, especially if you were carrying potluck dishes or a gym bag," Soltero said. She currently takes an AC Transit Transbay bus to work three days a week, and said it's less frequent and reliable than the old carpool system — and significantly more expensive.

Soltero counts herself among those who would embrace carpooling if it came back, albeit with more caution in the era of COVID: She would don a mask before hopping in a stranger's car. Others are also eager to participate, citing the need for more affordable, reliable transportation strategies.

Yet Finger has worked for years to rally interest in casual carpools, and said it's more complicated than people think. A system built on word-of-mouth will collapse if no one uses it for several months. The pandemic, with its protracted shutdowns, created a long enough gap that people lost the habit, or left their jobs and changed their commute patterns. Even when hybrid work took hold, rush hour wasn't predictable enough to sustain robust, consistent carpools. And because many pick-up locations aren't marked, people don't know where to stand and wait.

"There needs to be a critical mass of drivers and passengers," to restore what had once been a robust community, Finger said. He's surveyed about 150 people about their past carpool routines, and what it would take to lure them back. Most drivers and passengers won't wait for more than 10 minutes, Finger said. If they try a site once and have no success, they won't return.

Shaheen envisions a future in which casual carpooling could become more formal, possibly expanding pick-up and drop-off locations to the Peninsula or South Bay. Considering the benefits that carpooling provides for the environment, traffic congestion and easing demand for parking, it might be ripe for state or regional funding. Employers could also offer perks to workers who carpool, Shaheen said, citing the parking cash-out program, where companies pay workers not to drive to the office.

A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission praised the general idea of resuscitating casual carpools, though he was dubious about bringing in the government — or public funds.

"Some of the magic is that it happened without any formal government structure," said John Goodwin, the commission spokesperson. He noted that with so many transit agencies facing a fiscal cliff, the Bay Area has no money left to pay individual drivers.

Many devotees of casual carpooling say they don't want funding or formality; they just need momentum. Several of them are discussing a date to restart the ride-share network, insisting that people will love it so much, they'll work organically to keep it going.

Butts said he yearns to stand at Monte Vista and Oakland avenues again, "dollar in hand," watching for cars to roll up.

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