The "Worst part of your commute?" thread got me thinking about DC area slugs. For those of you that don't know about "slugs", these are people that hitch rides to and from work in cars that need additional passengers to ride in the HOV lanes. It's a really great system. It's an informal situation where drivers pick up passengers at commuter lots so they can drive in the HOV lanes into DC. In the evening, there are designated slug lines all around town where cars pick up passengers for the ride home.

http://www.slug-lines.com/Slugging/About_slugging.asp

Where I work, the slugs walk down the street holding signs where they need to get dropped off. Cars pull over and pick them up. My heartburn is that the cars pull over in the bike lane to pick up slugs. This forces me to stop or pull into city traffic to get around them. It wouldn't be so bad if the drivers seemed aware of my presence in the bike lane, but they get fixated on the slug holding the sign. I've been cut off many times. It's almost like I'm invisible.

End rant. DC slugging is really a cool phenomenon that grew out of the nightmare traffic situation. I just wish that drivers paid more attention.