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Enjoy your stay Thanx for visiting |
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Enjoy your stay Thanx for visiting |
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~ Traffic ~
It makes you wonder why you bought that shiny sports car in the first place. All you do is start the engine, test the gas pedal and coast in first gear just to stop about 20 feet in front of where you started crawling from. The salesman swore up and down that the car was high performance and would accelerate to 60 mph in less than 10 seconds but somehow it just hasn't lived up to its billing. What I would give to have a bicycle right now ? All you can see is car after car after car with no end in sight. There is a silver lining though. I have absolute confidence that this engine is strong enough to handle the continuous whistle of the air-conditioning while I sit in this make-shift parking lot. I guess this wouldn't be an appropriate time to listen to that motivational tape on managing multiple priorities. I may toss it out the window. Rush-hour traffic is enough to "drive" anyone crazy (and some drivers are).
It is one of the most hideous nightmares of being a commuter living in the suburbs and working in what's affectionately called "downtown". No wonder houses are cheaper out here. They don't tell you about "the drive" you will have to endure if you work anywhere in the area, or the fact that the four-lane street just over there is next to impossible to cross after 7:00 in the morning. It certainly warrants looking into starting that home business (maybe a little earlier than we had originally planned).
This one particular intersection just recently had traffic lights installed. The ordeal of getting across this major road once took 15 minutes and nerves of steel. Now it takes a few brief seconds and a change in the lights. Isn't it odd and sad, that it took a major horrific car accident and a multiple pedestrian hit-and-run (school children) to get a set of traffic lights installed. Everyone knew this was a death-trap and someone had to prove it convincingly to the local municipal powers before something was done about it. Unfortunately someone paid that price and we have all long since forgotten the victims. I have seen too many accidents where I knew full well that the drivers involved did not survive. It is a sobering thought but after a number of years, it becomes just another obstacle. There is no sense of personal tragedy or grief, just the thought of another delay and how many cars will slow down and look this time. People honk their horns, drive recklessly through intersections narrowly missing a pedestrian just to move ahead 4 or 5 spaces or to beat that slower-moving transport truck. No wonder accidents happen. Traffic creates chaos and it brings out the very worst qualities in people.
So after driving in this area for 10 years, I am starting to understand the logic of this new phenomenon called "road rage" and wonder how many people really feel this or even feel just a little bit of it. Of course I am thinking about this while I am sitting in traffic and looking at the driver to the left and the other one to the right. Is this a safe situation or am I trapped in a ring with a couple of all-star wrestlers who have nothing to lose ? I ponder the challenges of life, the to-do list waiting for me at work, shake off the anxiety and continue down the highway another 20 feet. It's a good thing that I know the routine and can do this trip in my sleep (which I think I have done on occasion). I plan for the worst-case and hope that I am pleasantly surprised by lighter than usual volume.
I am not sure how I have survived all these years without a ticket or an accident from all the driving I have done through the worst of weather and the worst of construction, with the heaviest of traffic that some people couldn't bare to experience more than once (and that was driving from the airport). It must be a state of mind if nothing else and maybe a little luck from learning to drive defensively all the time.
I have developed an uncanny tolerance for driving during rush-hours. Traffic doesn't bother me like it used. I'm not sure if it is hardened experience, or just resignation to the fact that I can't do anything about it. Maybe it's a combination of both. There is something to be said about not worrying about those things which you cannot control. This is especially true about traffic. Sure I am frustrated about being late and I have cursed many a car and truck for breaking the "code of conduct", but I still have my wits about me and always manage to arrive safe and sound with no dents or emotional scarring. I guess the key is to know your adversaries on the highway, to drive within your comfort limits and to take advantage of otherwise wasted time by doing something enjoyable while inching closer to your destination. I have to thank the car manufacturers for thinking of coffee-cup holders and cassette radios. They knew what they were doing and have made the ride through traffic if anything else, tolerable.
Pure and simple..
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- This Storyworx page updated May 20th, 1998 -