(no subject)
So I commute to work. Not just me actually, I carpool with my brother and Sarah. It's not a particularly long commute.. or at least not in geographical distance. Going an average speed of maybe somewhere between 65 and 70, and assuming normal-ideal traffic conditions, it would take us maybe 35 minutes to get to work. Not bad right?
Except that lately it takes closer to 1:00-1:15 minutes every day. The same thing was true last fall around this time, and in between then and now it was frequently that bad, and occasionally reached about 1:30 to get in to work. I think that's pretty strong evidence of a serious problem, and I'll discuss that in a sec, but I think the real reason I wanted to make this post was to talk about people, specifically people's behavior when it comes to driving.
Yeah yeah i know, everyone knows there are a lot of assholes on the road, but I don't think one can experience the worst of it until one is subjected to a daily commute. I think the way a person drives probably says a lot of about the person in other capacities. I think after a year+ commute to the same place, I've really lost a lot of faith in people's ability to co-exist, simply based on how people behave while driving.
Here's short list of simple observations, in no particular order:
1. From what I (We) have observed, expensive cars (ie, their drivers) display a higher tendency to drive recklessly and inconsiderately.
2. Cars observed driving recklessly (too fast, no signaling, ill-timed lane changes, tailgating etc.) will frequently already appear to have been damaged in some (or several) ways, probably as a result of previous accidents.
3. People will try to drive faster than you only when you are in front of them. This is something we've noticed pretty consistently. We're driving in the "fast lane" or the "passing lane" or whatever you want to call it, and a car will slowly make it's way up to us, tailgate us as if to say "I want to go faster than you", only to drop speed inexplicably once we change lanes out of their way. Maybe this has something to do with subconsciously perceived goals? I don't know...
4. Courtesy as a general principle is at an all-time low it seems. I remember when I first got my license pretty clearly, and how the roads were then, and I can say with some assurance that people tailgate now far FAR more than they used to. People also seem to use their brights now with reckless abandon. It's really unnecessary. Our car has one headlight out right now, and I can STILL see fine.
5. Focus. It seems like driving, actually paying attention and keeping control of the vehicle your driving, is the last thing on people's minds when they're in car these days. Technology probably has a lot to do with it. Most of the people drifting in and out of lanes, changing speed erratically, etc. are on the phone (as far as I've been able to observe). DVD players are not terribly uncommon (in SUVs mostly), and now GPS systems are commonplace as well. I don't know who all these people are that are on the phone before they're even at work in the morning, but they're probably not life and death calls. I think it's excessive.
6. Impatience seems to be the guiding principle on the road. If there are two lanes of traffic, both backed up, but with one lane 3 cars ahead of the other, someone WILL change lanes to move up that length of 3 cars, sometimes even less! If a single lane road is wide enough for 2 cars to fit next to each other, someone WILL try to make the road 2 lanes, if only to gain a single car's length ahead.
This last example I want to elaborate on as it relates to our commute:
So as you can see, there's my house, and my work. According to Google Maps, it's a 28.4 mile trip. The area in question is where the route makes roughly a right angle to the left, about in the middle of the route.
Here's a slightly closer look. You can see the route makes a loop from one highway onto another. (A funny note: Actually it's the same highway... kind of. The more North-South portion at the bottom is always referred to as Route 95, and the portion running roughly East-West (at least in this pic) is called Route 95 to the left of that split, and Route 93 to the right, or alternatively, the whole thing can be referred to as Route 128. The funny thing is, let's say you're traveling Southbound on 95 from above that interchange, and then pass under the bridge that marks the split (where our route runs) you're now traveling northbound on Route 93, even though you're still traveling in the same direction, which isn't even north-south at this point! That's Massachusetts for you...)
Here it is even closer. You can see Route 95 coming from the south, and then splitting; the left branch running over Route 128 (along with the onramp from 93 (128) South back onto 95), and the right branch merging on 93 (128) North. Our route takes us around the loop (DURR obviously)
Ok finally. So the issue here is this: When 95 branches (now cropped out of the photo to the south a tiny bit) there are two large signs on either side of the road that say "FORM SINGLE LANE AHEAD". The point on the road I marked with Arrow #1 is where, for civilized people, the road becomes "too narrow" for 2 cars to fit side by side (I'd use Street View images here, except the whole area has undergone a lot of changes, actually it still is). So my issue, if you haven't guessed yet, is that people fail to form a single lane probably 90% of the time. Now this really only applies to heavy traffic, since when the road is moving along quickly, the cars are spaced enough that the problem doesn't present itself.
Big deal right? Well the problem is that where the onramp merges with the highway, at Arrow #2, the road really is only a single lane wide, So it becomes a bottleneck, forcing everyone to merge RIGHT before merging again with highway traffic. Things also get a little complicated on the loop, when there's a large truck or otherwise wide vehicle, which really does prevent side-by-side traffic, so you end up with this awkward jumble of cars, some 2 abreast, some offset at strange increments, with a couple 21 wheelers thrown in here and there. Even when a couple cars attempt at creating a single lane (ourselves frequently in that mix), someone will always, ALWAYS try to snake their way down the length of cars, sometimes coming dangerously close as they pass.
It's my belief that if everyone merged into a single lane as they entered the loop, that the whole thing would progress much more quickly, and it would be less dangerous and stressful. I'm inclined to think that the civil engineers would agree with me since they put the signs there directing everyone into a single lane. If that wasn't evidence enough, after finally merging onto the highway after the loop, traffic will frequently be moving much faster, making it quite clear that the only thing causing a slow down is the jumbled loop traffic coupled with the bottleneck at the end of the onramp.
It comes down to impatience again I guess. People are too stupid, or too jaded to try and see the whole picture. They can only see a cars length in front of them, and if there's a space they can fit into to move ahead a little, they take it. So that's it, that's the issue. People just seem to have such little regard for each other on the road, it depresses the hell out of me. It makes me angry too.
Now, the other issue I said I was going to mention, is the fact that a lot of the traffic on that road in general, is simply a product of the road's inability to handle that many cars. It seems the state feels that way too, because for the last year in particular, a very large stretch of Route 128 is undergoing constructions, apparently to add an extra lane to each side of the highway. Who knows whether it will be a standard lane, or a carpool lane, or exactly how far it will run, but I'm glad they're doing it, even if it causes some inconveniences (frequent 1-2 lane closures). After being to a couple of large US cities during my stint on the road, it became clear that Massachusetts had an even poorer system of highways than I had thought, and this work is badly needed.
So, yeah, It's not as if i'm bringing anything new to light. But I thought I needed to discuss it, if only for my own benefit. It's not healthy to be angry a lot, and the commute every morning really makes things feel kind of hopeless. I'd be interested in others' stories about this sort of thing. Do you feel the same way about the state of things? Do you think we're becoming a more inconsiderate people?
Except that lately it takes closer to 1:00-1:15 minutes every day. The same thing was true last fall around this time, and in between then and now it was frequently that bad, and occasionally reached about 1:30 to get in to work. I think that's pretty strong evidence of a serious problem, and I'll discuss that in a sec, but I think the real reason I wanted to make this post was to talk about people, specifically people's behavior when it comes to driving.
Yeah yeah i know, everyone knows there are a lot of assholes on the road, but I don't think one can experience the worst of it until one is subjected to a daily commute. I think the way a person drives probably says a lot of about the person in other capacities. I think after a year+ commute to the same place, I've really lost a lot of faith in people's ability to co-exist, simply based on how people behave while driving.
Here's short list of simple observations, in no particular order:
1. From what I (We) have observed, expensive cars (ie, their drivers) display a higher tendency to drive recklessly and inconsiderately.
2. Cars observed driving recklessly (too fast, no signaling, ill-timed lane changes, tailgating etc.) will frequently already appear to have been damaged in some (or several) ways, probably as a result of previous accidents.
3. People will try to drive faster than you only when you are in front of them. This is something we've noticed pretty consistently. We're driving in the "fast lane" or the "passing lane" or whatever you want to call it, and a car will slowly make it's way up to us, tailgate us as if to say "I want to go faster than you", only to drop speed inexplicably once we change lanes out of their way. Maybe this has something to do with subconsciously perceived goals? I don't know...
4. Courtesy as a general principle is at an all-time low it seems. I remember when I first got my license pretty clearly, and how the roads were then, and I can say with some assurance that people tailgate now far FAR more than they used to. People also seem to use their brights now with reckless abandon. It's really unnecessary. Our car has one headlight out right now, and I can STILL see fine.
5. Focus. It seems like driving, actually paying attention and keeping control of the vehicle your driving, is the last thing on people's minds when they're in car these days. Technology probably has a lot to do with it. Most of the people drifting in and out of lanes, changing speed erratically, etc. are on the phone (as far as I've been able to observe). DVD players are not terribly uncommon (in SUVs mostly), and now GPS systems are commonplace as well. I don't know who all these people are that are on the phone before they're even at work in the morning, but they're probably not life and death calls. I think it's excessive.
6. Impatience seems to be the guiding principle on the road. If there are two lanes of traffic, both backed up, but with one lane 3 cars ahead of the other, someone WILL change lanes to move up that length of 3 cars, sometimes even less! If a single lane road is wide enough for 2 cars to fit next to each other, someone WILL try to make the road 2 lanes, if only to gain a single car's length ahead.
This last example I want to elaborate on as it relates to our commute:
So as you can see, there's my house, and my work. According to Google Maps, it's a 28.4 mile trip. The area in question is where the route makes roughly a right angle to the left, about in the middle of the route.
Here's a slightly closer look. You can see the route makes a loop from one highway onto another. (A funny note: Actually it's the same highway... kind of. The more North-South portion at the bottom is always referred to as Route 95, and the portion running roughly East-West (at least in this pic) is called Route 95 to the left of that split, and Route 93 to the right, or alternatively, the whole thing can be referred to as Route 128. The funny thing is, let's say you're traveling Southbound on 95 from above that interchange, and then pass under the bridge that marks the split (where our route runs) you're now traveling northbound on Route 93, even though you're still traveling in the same direction, which isn't even north-south at this point! That's Massachusetts for you...)
Here it is even closer. You can see Route 95 coming from the south, and then splitting; the left branch running over Route 128 (along with the onramp from 93 (128) South back onto 95), and the right branch merging on 93 (128) North. Our route takes us around the loop (DURR obviously)
Ok finally. So the issue here is this: When 95 branches (now cropped out of the photo to the south a tiny bit) there are two large signs on either side of the road that say "FORM SINGLE LANE AHEAD". The point on the road I marked with Arrow #1 is where, for civilized people, the road becomes "too narrow" for 2 cars to fit side by side (I'd use Street View images here, except the whole area has undergone a lot of changes, actually it still is). So my issue, if you haven't guessed yet, is that people fail to form a single lane probably 90% of the time. Now this really only applies to heavy traffic, since when the road is moving along quickly, the cars are spaced enough that the problem doesn't present itself.
Big deal right? Well the problem is that where the onramp merges with the highway, at Arrow #2, the road really is only a single lane wide, So it becomes a bottleneck, forcing everyone to merge RIGHT before merging again with highway traffic. Things also get a little complicated on the loop, when there's a large truck or otherwise wide vehicle, which really does prevent side-by-side traffic, so you end up with this awkward jumble of cars, some 2 abreast, some offset at strange increments, with a couple 21 wheelers thrown in here and there. Even when a couple cars attempt at creating a single lane (ourselves frequently in that mix), someone will always, ALWAYS try to snake their way down the length of cars, sometimes coming dangerously close as they pass.
It's my belief that if everyone merged into a single lane as they entered the loop, that the whole thing would progress much more quickly, and it would be less dangerous and stressful. I'm inclined to think that the civil engineers would agree with me since they put the signs there directing everyone into a single lane. If that wasn't evidence enough, after finally merging onto the highway after the loop, traffic will frequently be moving much faster, making it quite clear that the only thing causing a slow down is the jumbled loop traffic coupled with the bottleneck at the end of the onramp.
It comes down to impatience again I guess. People are too stupid, or too jaded to try and see the whole picture. They can only see a cars length in front of them, and if there's a space they can fit into to move ahead a little, they take it. So that's it, that's the issue. People just seem to have such little regard for each other on the road, it depresses the hell out of me. It makes me angry too.
Now, the other issue I said I was going to mention, is the fact that a lot of the traffic on that road in general, is simply a product of the road's inability to handle that many cars. It seems the state feels that way too, because for the last year in particular, a very large stretch of Route 128 is undergoing constructions, apparently to add an extra lane to each side of the highway. Who knows whether it will be a standard lane, or a carpool lane, or exactly how far it will run, but I'm glad they're doing it, even if it causes some inconveniences (frequent 1-2 lane closures). After being to a couple of large US cities during my stint on the road, it became clear that Massachusetts had an even poorer system of highways than I had thought, and this work is badly needed.
So, yeah, It's not as if i'm bringing anything new to light. But I thought I needed to discuss it, if only for my own benefit. It's not healthy to be angry a lot, and the commute every morning really makes things feel kind of hopeless. I'd be interested in others' stories about this sort of thing. Do you feel the same way about the state of things? Do you think we're becoming a more inconsiderate people?