Slugs and Slugging

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Slugs and Slugging

Avoid The Slog Into Work - Pick Up A Slug

“Room for a slug?” Picking up slugs makes perfect sense to American drivers, who regularly use highways where there are car-share lanes.

“Slugs” are practitioners of “slugging”, a peculiar form of hitchhiking fuelled by the growth of car sharing. They stand beside car-sharing lanes trying to bag a free ride. Unlike conventional hitching, where the driver is offering a favour, with slugging the benefit is mutual - the driver qualifies for the HOV (high occupancy vehicle) lane and can drive to work in half the time (well maybe not quite half - but you get the picture).

In Washington DC and neighbouring Virginia there are several well established HOV lanes, and slugging has developed into an extremely efficient practice. Although not officially sanctioned by the authorities, slugs wait at recognised “slug stops” and have developed their own etiquette. Chitchat is frowned on, for example, “No one wants a 30 minute polite conversation at the beginning/end of a working day” according to one regular slug.

Slugs wait in line for the first driver heading in their direction. No money changes hands; slugs should not talk on their mobiles while in the car; no one smokes or eats: the driver controls the radio; and slugs and drivers both say thankyou at the beginning and end of the journey.

A practice dubbed “body-snatching”, when drivers try to avoid having to wait by picking up slugs on the way to the queue, is a big no-no. There are even websites on which slugs can post warnings about the behaviour of particular motorists, and slugs retain the right to refuse a lift if they don’t like the look of the driver or vehicle.

The term “slug” was a derogatory term used by bus drivers who were annoyed at the use of bus stops by car sharers.

With the spread of car sharing lanes in the UK it’s only a matter of time before we get the slugs too.

So now you know.

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