The Maryland Department of Transportation has two new incentive programs to pay Baltimore-area commuters to share rides to work, its latest attack on the proud American tradition of sitting alone in bumper-to-bumper traffic.

Sharing your commute with at least one other person can earn you each $5 per day for up to 90 days. You just need to be headed somewhere in the city of Baltimore or Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Harford, Howard or Queen Anne’s counties, log your trips and fill out some surveys.

There’s also an option in which participants could get an up to $500 subsidy per month to lease an SUV or van with a group of people.

Yes, it’s just carpooling — a concept apparently so foreign to this country’s collective psyche that people in the nation’s capital had to invent new words for it: organized hitchhiking or “slugging.”

But it’s also part of Maryland’s attempt to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which are largely driven by personal vehicles, and ease roadway congestion, which officials say has worsened since the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed and many federal agencies restarted in-office work requirements.

And yes, the state did just increase some car registration fees, the cost of the emissions check and added a new $5 tire tax. So all the more reason to try to save some dollars and cents.

Here’s how it works:

Create an account and search for a match

Sign up online for a Commuter Connections account. From there, you can search existing car and vanpools to see if anyone else in your area is doing it already and looking for a commuting buddy. The program gets you in touch; then you work out the details together.

Participants typically pick a rendezvous point on either end of the commute. So you don’t have to count on finding a next-door neighbor or someone with the same exact destination.

For the carpool option, you can keep using your car. You’ll just need to properly register with the program and make sure you are logging your trips.

What if I already carpool with someone?

As long as it meets the requirements (trips are for work and within the eligible areas), you can register that ride at this link.

Just make sure that everyone in the car is registered individually with the program and logs the same trips, or else it could delay payment.

Rewards for the program can include gift cards for local gas stations or auto maintenance shops, as well as money to put toward Amtrak tickets or a Visa gift card.

Actually, I know like six people I could ride with. What then?

You could sign up to create a vanpool, which would subsidize the group with $500 monthly to put toward a van or SUV. The program covers vehicles that fit between seven and 15 people, but you just need a minimum of four people to start one.

First, fill out this form online to schedule a time to meet with an official from the state program. They’ll figure out the best option for your group, which could include leasing a vehicle from Enterprise. The rental company would take care of insurance and maintenance, and the state would make sure the $500 comes off the vehicle price or rental rate.

Some employers offer their own vanpool programs. If yours does (check with HR on this), it won’t get your group the $500 subsidy but will qualify you for a tax credit.

State transportation officials are touting these programs as great ways to save some money over time because vehicle costs are shared and, in the case of a vanpool, you avoid wear and tear on your own car.

Maryland stands to benefit beyond congestion and emissions relief, too — vanpools are actually considered public transit, and can factor in for budget requests to the U.S. Department of Transportation. In other words, it makes Maryland eligible for more federal money.

They also make you eligible for a separate program called “Guaranteed Ride Home” — if you are part of a car or vanpool (or otherwise depend on public transit) and need to leave work early one day, you can expense a taxi ride up to six times a year.

How to handle gas? Well, that’s up to the group, as are other critical policies like what makes an acceptable car breakfast and whether German speed metal or the NPR newscast is a better morning soundtrack.

And participants be warned: Joining a carpool could mean having to talk to people you don’t know super well in the morning, possibly before your morning coffee. Proceed with caution.