hitching a lift to commute to work, in an area where there are HOV lanes (high occupancy vehicle lanes, where cars must have at least one or sometimes two passengers). The hitchhiker (or slug) therefore enables a car which otherwise would have only a driver to use the faster HOV lane.
Northern Virginia has had some form of slugging since the HOV lanes were built in the 1970s.
Submitted by Harris Park from United Kingdom on 04/01/2010