I have actually seen the carpool thingy work pretty well when I lived outside of Washington DC. People would park in the commuter lots outside the city and basically get in lines at designated spots depending on what their destination was. There they called it “slugging” and the person looking for a ride was a “slug”. Another person would come along and pick up a couple of folks that wanted to go to the same, or nearly same, destination and they would be able to use the HOV-3 lane. The riders didn’t pay for gas or anything else. They merely got the ride for free and the person driving the car got the free benefit of being able to use the HOV lane – a huuuuuge benefit in the DC Metro area.
One of my friends used it every day. She would go down to the commuter parking lot a little bit early and catch a ride.(She worked at the Pentagon so it was really simple.) At the end of the day she would do the reverse process and get a ride back to the commuter lot she parked at and drive the 2 miles or so back home.
People incentivize(sp?) very well. All they normally need is a reason to change their behavior and the knowledge that an alternative exists.
