Vehicles take the carpool lane on the approach to the Bay Bridge in 2025. Casual carpooling is making a comeback among commuters.

After David Knowles became the Chronicle’s deputy editorial page editor, he had to start commuting to San Francisco from the East Bay.

Of course, taking an AC Transit bus or BART is the practical way to commute to the Chronicle’s downtown office, where parking is at a premium. In the past few months, and especially after gas prices spiked, Knowles discovered another mode of commuting. 

One morning, Knowles was waiting at his AC Transit stop when a driver pulled up and asked people to get into the car. No, it wasn’t a kidnapping attempt. The driver explained they were trying to get enough passengers to drive in the carpool lane to get to the Bay Bridge, saving time and money.

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“It’s a bit disarming to be standing waiting for a bus and have a stranger offer you a ride,” Knowles told me, adding that he hesitated before taking the offer. “There were two people in the car, both of whom were older, say, in their early 60s, so they didn’t seem at all threatening.”

Knowles said he wanted to write a column about carpooling after seeing in an informal Chronicle poll last week that found 30% of readers would change their driving behavior if gas reached $6 a gallon, which it has at some Bay Area stations. His column was published on Thursday.

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“The math is pretty simple,” Knowles said. “By taking the ride, I didn’t pay any commuting costs, and I got to work in the same amount of time as the bus.”

With gas prices expected to hit $7 a gallon soon due to the war with Iran, more drivers may switch to carpooling and public transportation to commute.

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As Knowles pointed out in his column, a 2013 study published in ScienceDirect found that a 10% rise in the price of gas corresponds with 10 additional cars in high-occupancy-vehicle lanes per hour. 

Even before the recent gas price spike, more people were carpooling, and the 511 SF Bay transportation agency restarted its Casual Carpool program, which designates pickup locations where drivers can be paired with passengers. You might remember this from before the pandemic. 

Knowles still takes the bus or BART, but said casual carpooling is his preferred commuting method and recommends it, though it may seem strange or scary at first.

“Get a carpool buddy. Most people will accept two passengers, and there’s safety in numbers,” Knowles said. “Once you find people you like, you can also try to set something up that’s more regular, so that the same three people can meet up to form a carpool.”

Find out more about why Knowles prefers carpooling in his column.

Thursday in Open Forum

Maybe all heroes have a dark side.

That was my first thought after the New York Times published the stunning allegations that Cesar Chavez sexually abused women and girls during his decades leading the farmworker rights movement.

Most people know Chavez’s legacy as a civil rights icon, but as attorney Briana Torres wrote in an Open Forum on Thursday, “Hero worship is dangerous.”

“Movements often protect their leaders in order to protect the cause itself,” Torres, an expert in civil rights and gender equality, wrote. “In Chavez’s case, preserving the heroic narrative became more important than confronting the harm.”

Read Torres’s Open Forum to find out how she thinks the accusations against Chavez will affect the legacy of the farmworker labor movement.

Are higher gas prices making you rethink your commute or driving habits? Have you tried casual carpooling?

Guest opinions in Open Forum and Insight are produced by writers with expertise, personal experience or original insights on a subject of interest to our readers. Their views do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Chronicle editorial board, which is committed to providing a diversity of ideas to our readership.

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What is your view of Chavez in light of these allegations? 

Tell us in a letter to the editor or Open Forum submission. 

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