How I get to work

I know… what could be more self-indulgent and boring to readers than a post about my morning commutes? However, I find myself explaining my commute to tons of people, because it’s pretty interesting. I actually believe that my commute is an interesting example of policy at work. I would also love to find out if anyone has estimated the economic value of my commute. So bear with me, hopefully this is not as self-indulgent as it seems.

I live in Oakland, California, across the bay from San Francisco where I work. To get into work, I hop into a stranger’s car each morning using a program called Casual Carpool. There is a carpool lane to get onto the Bay Bridge connecting Oakland to San Francisco requiring two passengers in the car. Using it can easily save a driver 15 or 20 minutes to get into the city. Pickup points are located all around Oakland, where riders can wait in line and hop in the car of a driver who wants to save time. The drivers drop passengers off at the first exit on the other side of bay, walking distance from downtown and near many public transportation stops. So, I walk 10 minutes to the designated pick up location, wait anywhere between 1 and 5 minutes get in a car, hand the driver one dollar, listen to podcasts as I ride along for 20 minutes and walk another 10 minutes to the office. It’s completely self-organized, and surprisingly low-tech (no, there is not an app). It’s a great commute when it doesn’t rain, but the drought in California is on my side.

When I tell people about this, they generally respond with something like “Only in the Bay Area, people in my city would never be nice enough to do that.” I don’t believe that it is a question of nice enough’ it’s a question of incentives. The 20 minutes that it saves a driver is well worth cost of swinging by the pick up spot. The policy and planning decision to have a carpool lane is what make this possible working by incentivizing people to carpool. In fact, the lane such a good incentive that the one dollar I hand the driver doesn’t even cover my fair share of the toll. The carpool lane creates a demand for riders, which is supplied by eager commuters.  Of course, some other decisions and good luck make this work. As the passengers generally don’t know the driver or each other, all parties have a sense of security in numbers. The decision to have two riders certainly facilitates this.  Also, geography doesn’t hurt, there is a pretty much one way into the city and it’s at the exact spot that everyone wants to go to.  I think a similar program would spring up in any city with particular match of geography and incentives ( I know something similar occurs in Washginton D.C.

Because this system works so well, a broader range of neighborhoods in Oakland are reasonable locations to live for city workers than would be available using traditional public transportation. I live about a mile away from BART (the Bay Area’s commuter subway) in a neighborhood named Adam’s Point. It’s just a little too far to want to walk to each morning. Honestly, without the casual carpool (and the Express Bus, which is probably a cheaper, more flexible public investment than rail), this amazing neighborhood probably would not be a viable location for us. But instead, it is one of the hottest neighborhoods in Oakland. It would be interesting for someone to study not just carpool lane’s effect on traffic, but it’s impact on the economic development of different neighborhoods. And while great, it’s not free; everyone who doesn’t get use the carpool lane has a longer commute because of it.

Yes, this was wonky. But it’s a neat little example of the small successes that public policy can have everywhere. It also shows a little bit of how my mind works. Instead of enjoying a beautiful view of the bay each morning, I try to measure the economic impact of carpool lanes.