Eli5 How are carpool lanes supposed to help traffic? It seems like having another lane open to everyone would make things better?

Slugging is fairly unique to DC though.

There's enough people going to specific locations at specific times that make it work well. For example, I worked near the Capitol Building, and lived in Prince William County. During rush hour it could take over an hour to get from downtown to PWC using regular I-95. But by picking up a couple of people, I could then take the HOV lanes on I-95 and cut that time in half, or even less. I drop the riders off at the park-and-ride location, and then go home.

Another reason it works is because the people you are picking up are like you: workers. It's not like there's any criminals that want to go from downtown DC to the suburbs at rush hour. It's just people who want to get home after a long day of work, and not spend another hour plus doing it.

There's no compensation between the drivers and the riders. Both get benefits -- the driver gets to use the HOV lanes thanks to the riders, and the riders get a free ride thanks to the driver. Personally, I had a lot of respect for riders simply because they did save me so much time. And there were times when there were far more drivers than riders, and a driver may have to wait 10-15 minutes just to get riders.

/r/explainlikeimfive Thread Parent