I love casual carpooling. If you tell anyone about it - especially out of the Bay Area they think you are crazy for picking up 2 random strangers. It's a complete value exchange for all parties and everyone really benefits (I save time + toll and they get a free ride into the city.)
Drop off point in the city is the first exit - Fremont and you'll see a bunch of cars dropping their casual carpoolers off too.
I started a new job by the ATT Ball park and tried taking public transportation there and it was taking over an hour as I had to do Bart + MUNI or Ferry + MUNI as the walk was a tad far from both of those.
What I've learned so far as the driver:
- You'll see a line of people waiting to be picked up by the Alameda fire station on Encinal and Park right across from the KFC/park
- The sweet spot of picking people up is 7-8am. I personally try to get there between 7:50-8:10am and the one time I came around 8:20am it was too late! No one was there and I had to go into the city by myself.. literally took double the time so lesson learned
- With casual carpool average time with getting into the city is around 30 minutes
- There are etiquette rules on the website but most of it is just common sense.. respect the car+drive and each other
- I have NPR on as neutral thing to listen to on the radio
- There is no small talk - most people get into the car and use their phones or fall asleep (totally fine by me - I rarely have seen the same folks multiple times and we don't need to know what each other's name is and what they do)
- When there's a long line I tend to pick up 3 people since I have space in my car
- The website mentions that sometimes people will offer a few dollars to pitch in with gas or the toll (discounted at $3.00 vs $6.00) but no one has ever offered and its fine but in case you were expecting it..
Since I'm the driver I don't have to worry about how to get back from the city like the people that hitch a ride but from my understanding people will BART, AC Transit, Ferry, etc.
There is no casual carpool on the way back to Alameda but I believe there may be in other East Bay cities - something to check out on the website.
Carpool isn't a huge advantage on the way back as not all entrances from the city has a carpool entry. read more