In an amazing feat of psycho-archaeology, the Washington Post Style section last week unearthed several perfectly preserved specimens of a creature not seen since the late 1970s: the Carpool Hero. You remember the Heroes — “good citizens,” as the Post put it, who have “left their cars at home, saving money, saving the environment,” and feeling pretty darned pleased with themselves.
The Heroes were glimpsed riding a van along a recently opened high- occupancy-vehicle, or HOV, lane in suburban Maryland, outside Washington. While the individual commuters crawl bumper to bumper, the Carpool Heroes sail by. They all work for the government, of course, and so can be counted on to keep, shall we say, regular hours. Not for them the complications to which selfish solo commuters succumb — no coming in early, no working late! ” It’s amazing how many oneperson cars there are,” tut-tuts one of the car poolers. “People don’t want to give up their independence. That’s one of the quirks of being an American, I suppose.”
Thanks go to the Post for bringing us this blast from the past: the HOV honchos, the Carpool Heroes, stuffed in a van and proud of it, quirkless to the last.
