The town I grew up 4 miles from is so small it does not have a traffic light. The state put in a four way stop a few years ago, and gave up and took it out as most people stopped and there was no other car within half a mile. North Branch has to hold an event, a parade or football game to have anything that comes close to looking like traffic.
Now I live in the Washington DC metro area. Traffic is legendary here, at rush hour the average speed on the expressways is about 20 miles per hour. Recently I had a meeting 17 miles northwest of home. It can be an easy drive, a mile up US-1, get on I-495 west, take it north around the the beltway, there are super express toll lanes for about 10 miles of it. The trip home took about 25 minutes. The trip there in the morning was another story. Someone stopped and someone didn't, crumple zones on both end of a car worked and the driver walked away, but traffic was backed up for miles, it took me 30 minutes to go 2 miles, I could have walked it that fast. I had the top down, the music turned up, it was a glorious late spring morning. I was very chill. Once I inched past the accident, it was back to 65 miles per hour. I made it the meeting with time to spare.
I lived in Orlando from 1980 to 1995, and watched the area grow from a sleepy town with Disney on its southern edge, to a rather busy area. When I was first there I could drive from the far northwest of the city (Apopka) to the far eastern edge of the city (the University of Central Florida) in 30 minutes at rush hour. By the time I left, that same drive took an hour. Today it is toll roads and probably takes 90 minutes.
How do we cope with traffic? We use the subway system a lot. We don't drive much. We drive at off peak times if we can. We know some of the bypasses when thing are backed up.
Probably the biggest surprise for me, is I have developed patience when traffic is backed up. Fussing and trying to find the fastest lane, seldom makes a difference. Ease your way forward, and usually within 15-20 minutes the traffic will clear, and often you can't really tell what caused the backup. It just happens. It is a part of life. It is not the traffic, it is how you react to it.
We've lived in many big cities with heavy traffic. But I remember living in Connecticut an hour and 45 minutes from my mother's. Sometimes (rarely) it took an hour and 45 minutes. Sometimes it took 3-/2 hours.
ReplyDeleteOne reason I have never driven along the east coast, north of Delaware.
DeleteIf you watch traffic congestion from overhead when there isn't anything blocking traffic, one car cuts across a couple of lanes to get to an exit, drivers all brake and the ripple and rubber band stretching effect can go back for kilometres. With heavy traffic it doesn't take much to congest traffic.
ReplyDeleteIf you didn't grow up knowing terrible traffic congestion, it can make steam come from our ears. Young people are just immune to raging over traffic congestion. It is all they have known.
It took a long time for me to get used to traffic.
DeletePatience is key.
ReplyDeleteOf course a convertible and some nice tunes helps, I'm sure.
And nice weather, I got caught in stop and go traffic one day, with the top down, and 99 degrees.
DeletePatience and good music...two things that help with the frustration factor.
ReplyDeleteAnd I have mellowed a bit over the years.
DeleteMy small hometown didn't have any traffic lights either.
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of them still out there
DeleteThe frustration of traffic comes from within us. We can control it. Your way sound like the best way.
ReplyDeleteMight as well live with it, this afternoon we bypassed the expressway and took the old slow roads, that were faster and less frustrating.
DeleteHappily my commute goes 'against traffic'. I've learned to listen to podcasts and not fret the slowdowns.
ReplyDeleteMore time to listen
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