Some commuters want to bring back the Bay Area's casual carpool. Here's when

San Francisco Chronicle​

24-06-2025

As BART confronts a financial crisis and more traffic clogs Bay Area freeways, some commuters are eyeing a solution from the past.
They want to resurrect casual carpool, the grassroots system in which drivers pick up passengers at designated spots in the East Bay, and carry them across the Bay Bridge to the Financial District.
Launched amid transit meltdowns in the 1970s, this arrangement died with the pandemic. But enthusiasts never stopped trying to revive it, and now they see an opening. Workers are returning to offices in droves and, in September, California will stop allowing single-driver electric cars to use fast-moving diamond lanes on highways. Public transportation agencies, including BART and transbay bus lines, are facing deficits that could eviscerate service if taxpayers don't provide a bailout.
In such an environment more people would be forced to drive, and many would have a strong incentive to pile in cars with strangers. Carpools provide benefits for drivers, who get discount bridge tolls and diamond lane access, and passengers, who might chip in a dollar for a swift, comfortable ride.
Proponents are mulling a date to restart the massive, ad-hoc network. They now hope to time it with the beginning of the school year, in August or September.
'This effort to bring casual carpool back has a lot of traction,' said Camille Bermudez, an East Bay resident who carpooled to work for years. She first tried the system as a teenager, with her dad driving. Following an indulgent weekday breakfast at a cafe in Rockridge, the pair set off for the high school Bermudez attended in San Francisco's Sunset District. As they rolled beneath the State Route 24 freeway overpass at Claremont Avenue and Hudson Street, Bermudez' dad slowed for a group of people waiting at the curb.
'He said, 'We're going to pick someone up,'' Bermudez recalled. Fascinated, she had watched her father park and motion for someone to hop in the car. It didn't take long to grasp the concept.
'There's this level of trust with casual carpool,' she said, characterizing the system as a form of common-sense transport that's built on collective action. 'You're getting in the car with a neighbor, a fellow worker, a fellow commuter.'
Re-invigorating that intricate network of pick-ups and drop-offs won't be easy after five years of dormancy. Maps of the old sites still exist online, but people are no longer accustomed to using them. Abandoned cars have parked in former carpool loading zones; signs marking the curbs have faded.
Die-hard carpoolers, such as Bermudez, remain unfazed. She and others circulated surveys over the last several months to rally interest in the commuting option. Before the official re-launch, they might hold a series of parties at pick-up spots to gather momentum. Organizers are spreading the word over social media, with casual carpool pages on Facebook and Instagram.
Kuan Butts, an Oakland resident who routinely carpooled to the city before COVID shutdowns in 2020, said he's seen hints of a resurgence. Occasionally, drivers pull up to his transbay bus stop in the Grand Lake neighborhood, offering rides to the rush hour throngs. Such scenes recall the origin story of casual carpool in the 1970s, with one difference: These days, Butts said, it's hard to coax two passengers — the required number for the diamond lane — into a car with a driver they don't know.
'Maybe there's a resocialization element,' Butts surmised. He's confident that people will come around. Once a person tries carpooling, he said, 'they realize it's totally safe. That it's the greatest thing in the world.'