Commuting

Three years into the pandemic, the once-popular slug lines are still ailing, much like transit systems in the region that have yet to see ridership rebound.

She still has to take her children to school, then needs passengers to take the HOV lanes for a quick, toll-free ride. She recently discovered a bus stop where passengers wait for an express bus to the Pentagon. Kandasamy said he hopes the lines will return as more people come back to offices and commuting patterns begin to settle. “If people are going back to an office, particularly downtown, slugging can be a very effective way and a very affordable way,” Biesiadny said. The name “slugs” derives from the word for counterfeit bus tokens. The 2022 survey found family carpools became more popular while the more casual “slug” carpools had declined. Before the pandemic, efforts were underway to extend the slugging culture to the Interstate 66 corridor, where new express lanes allow carpools to ride free and avoid congested general lanes. On a recent morning, the site of the region’s oldest slug line — Bob’s Slug Line off Old Keene Mill Road in Springfield — was sleepy. “The old system worked perfectly.” In many cases, slugs now exchange phone numbers to secure a carpool, still meeting at the same sites while following standard slugging rules: no eating or drinking, no controversial conversations, no use of cellphones. Some test their luck at the old spots, at most finding only a few scattered “slugs” waiting. Then came the coronavirus pandemic, and the long lines of riders and drivers that organically formed at park-and-ride lots nearly disappeared.