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Another commuting alternative is the idea of ditching a second car and using a shared vehicle to get to and from work. The benefit here is that with multiple drivers using the same car at different times, fewer cars need to find parking spaces in the city during the day. (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22452906/)

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/folding_scooter.jpgDan Carney - MSNBC - Jan. 9, 2008

Read on "slugging" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slugging), an informal method of carpooling, Slug-Lines.com (http://slug-lines.com/Slugging/About_slugging.asp) -- Ed.

Sometime during the postwar economic boom, two-car households became the norm. A commuting format became well-established — suburbanites got into their cars at their houses and out of them again at their offices. Life was simple.

Today, however, life is dramatically less simple. Gasoline is more costly, commutes are longer (in time if not in distance), traffic congestion is worse and in some cities are even charging commuters for driving in them during the busy morning hours.

The solutions to today’s commuting challenges are many and varied, and the result will be that commuting will no longer be the monolithic point-A-to-point-B solo drive in a car that it has been over the past half-century.

The fact remains that commuters want to use as little time as possible to reach work each morning and return home each evening, and they’d like to spend as little money as possible doing it.… http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22452906/

We've had slugging in Northern VA for probably 20 years now.

Incidentally, the HOV lanes that make slugging possible are increasingly clogged with single-occupant hybrid vehicles, which were granted an exemption in the early days of hybrids appearing on the market. This exemption needs to be dropped, or at least increased to HOV-2, but for political reasons I doubt it will happen.

(BTW out of towners are a little freaked about the idea of slugging, but I have never heard of any freak incidents of crime or anything. Part of this is probably due to the fact that slugging takes place in VA, with plenty of 2nd amendment rights, and a lot of sluggers and sluggees are federal and DOD employees, so there is also the good chance that somebody in your car is armed.)

If your commute really sucks, try this radical idea. Live closer to work, or actually drop the fantasty of a big house on a 5-acre lot and live in a more urbanized area. Sure you'll have to settle for a smaller house, but it means less house to clean, less space to heat/cool, and less yard to mow. It's nice to not have to get in a car and drive 5 miles just to get a gallon of milk. Yes, housing prices are higher, but the upside is that in most places right now, houses closer to urban centers are weathering the real estate downturn much better than tract houses in far flung areas.

What is slugging?

What is slugging?

Read on "slugging" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slugging), an informal method of carpooling, Slug-Lines.com (http://slug-lines.com/Slugging/About_slugging.asp) -- Ed.