The Decline of the Car Pool

asual car pools are gaining in popularity because many of the incentives for joining a traditional car pool aren't there anymore.

Free parking was one big advantage of traditional car pools, says Lauretta Ruest, senior outreach specialist with the Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission in the Washington area. But it's no longer guaranteed.

When President Carter initiated ride-sharing programs, he reserved free parking spaces for van pools, notes Ruest, whose job is to try to increase the use of multi-occupancy vehicles to reduce congestion. Today, the Internal Revenue Service, the Transportation Department and other agencies charge for vanpool parking. "This flies in the face of what we are trying to do," she says.

Even if members of your car pool are willing to pay for parking, there's no guarantee you'll get a spot. Car pools have to compete for parking places, explains Jack Burrows, who handles parking registration at the General Services Administration. The first cut to qualify for a parking sticker is based on the number of people in the car pool. "The more the merrier," he says. Burrows then looks at how many years of government service all the riders have.

"That's the tie breaker," he says.

But this system pits young bureaucrats against old. "People love to get people who will soon retire," says a federal employee who slugs into work. "They get a lot of points, versus someone fresh in their career." Because parking stickers are in such demand, there is abuse as well.

One day, Burrows asked a man who came to renew his parking pass whether the other people he had listed as members of his car pool were still riding with him. "I found that four out of five guys listed were dead," he says.

Another carpooler, says Burrows, "said he had five people riding with him, and he pulled into the lot in a Corvette."

Burrows agrees that traditional carpooling has changed. "It's radically different from the days of The Dick Van Dyke Show," he says. "People have many more transportation options today-buses, trains, subways, casual carpooling. I'm surprised we don't have helicopters."

"And with computers," Burrows adds, "you can easily telecommute. In fact, car pools may cease to exist. People may be able to work at home or to walk to a telecommunication site. Maybe we can get Scotty to beam us over."