Dec 17, 2004 10:26
The more I commute to work, the less I understand road rage. Getting angry isn't going to make you get there on time. If anything it is going to increase the chances of you doing something stupid which will exponentially increase your chances of getting in an accident. That will make you really late. It certainly isn't going to make you feel better. That type of destructive emotion tends to cause tension and stress.
Why am I thinking about this? Normally it takes me roughly a half an hour to get to work. Today it took me over an hour and a half. After 45 minutes in traffic and I had progressed no further than what is usually a 5 minute ride, I knew I wasn't going to get to work on time. There was nothing I could do about it to make it happen any way differently, so I got out my cell phone called work and told them I was going to be late. They told me I didn't have to come in if I didn't want to. My response was It's just backed up traffic. No big deal. I'll just be late.
I sat back, listened to my Nightwish mp3 cd, rolled down the window, crept along route 9 and talked to the occassional person who was crawling in the opposite direction. From them I found out it was backed up all the way to the express way. I was in for a long wait. But, I didn't get angry or upset, instead I sat and thought about the latest story I'm working on and admired the scenery.
When I finally got to the first light, I discovered one of the the three things backing traffic up so bad. The people in the left hand turn lane instead of stopping when their light turned red where trying to force there way into making a U-turn. I honked at the one guy who tried to pull that on me. I was thinking, Look your light is red didn't you notice? I have the right of way. I mean I had just sat through half my green light waiting for the cars to clear the intersection and he was behind the stopline with a red light. He knew the color of the light though and I got flipped off for my trouble. But, me and the 12 cars behind got to fill in the gap in the left lane he was going to block. Still I wasn't angry or upset, amused by people's stupidity, amazed at people's rudeness, but not, myself, upset or angry.
Next I passed car broken down in the middle lane. Totally unattended too. I was incredulous. With the speed traffic was going, the driver probably could have gotten some people to help push it to the side of the road. It certainly would have been the safe and nice thing to do.
Finally, I reached and passed the express way. The exits onto the expressway were all backed up, but thankfully I don't take the express way. I will admit there was something freeing about being able to drive faster than five miles an hour and not having to stop ever other minute.
By this time, I really was thinking about different peoples reactions. Some people just sat there in zoned out expressions. Others wiled away there time listening to the radio or taking on the phone. Then there were the angry people, talking excitedly in the phone or waving their hands and venting to themselves.
When I finally got to work, there was a steady stream behind me of other people caught in traffic. Almost universally, I heard how angry they were or how much they hated traffic. I find it highly ironic that the more I commute, the less the traffic bothers me, yet for everyone else it seems to be the opposite. People seem to make more stress out of this small part of their day then they need to. After all, traffic is beyond ones power to control, so you might as well sit back and enjoy the ride. Besides, some of my best thinking is done in the solitude of my car as I commute back and forth.