# Dial-A-Ride Carpooling

## (1973)

Bill Wattenburg upstaged the government bureaucracies during the 1973 energy crisis when the U.S. Energy Department proposed spending millions to organize all the state departments of motor vehicles across the country to use their files on motorists to match up citizens for carpools. They told Congress that they needed at least fifty million to subsidize the state agencies so that they could write the special computer programs required to do this within eighteen months. Wattenburg announced that the telephone companies could do the same thing immediately—at no extra cost to the taxpayers. And he proved it with a simple experiment.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported Wattenburg’s idea on December 22, 1973. He pointed out that a person’s telephone numbers at home and at work were all that was needed to match him up with the nearest other person who drove approximately the same route. The telephone companies had all the address data for every telephone number. Their computer programs were ready to do the job with very little modification. All the government had to do was ask them. And, it wouldn’t cost the taxpayers a dime.

He suggested that a person who wanted a carpool partner could simply dial a special “carpool” request code into his telephone and provide his work number. The telephone company, for a small charge, could then send him a list of all others who drove a similar route. Officials from Pacific Telephone Company in San Francisco agreed that Wattenburg was right. They said they would do it.

The czar of the energy department appeared to like the idea and promised to implement it, but nothing official was announced. We asked Bill Wattenburg whatever happened to this neat idea. He told us:

> “All the state departments of motor vehicles were already counting the millions they had been promised from Washington. Some powerful congressmen complained that my idea was illegal according to the consent decree that prohibited telephone companies from using their computers to process data. It was stupid, but the Justice Department was never formally asked to waive the prohibition. The federal pork barrel money was sent out as promised.

> “However, most of the state motor vehicle people realized that my scheme was a lot easier and more comprehensive because the telephone company data is always far more complete than address data in the motor vehicle files. So, they just got the files from the telephone company that they needed and did the same thing. Obviously, they used the millions they got from Washington to pay for other things. The sad part is that most people still can’t simply use their telephones to arrange carpooling with the ease that should be available to them everywhere. But, California does this with a special 800 number.

> “As always, the state bureaucracies invented forms that people have to fill out to make a carpool request. This discourages most. But it keeps a lot of idiot bureaucrats busy. The people who could benefit the most from carpooling are not going to allow themselves to be matched up with other people by the government. And they avoid giving personal information to the government. However, most trust the telephone company.”

We asked Wattenburg what he thought about not getting any official recognition for this. His answer was: “Ah, what the hell. That’s the usual case when you deal with bureaucrats. They know I made them do what I wanted. I made them jump. That’s good enough.”