Oh wait, no. I’ll never love traffic, and yes, I did just equate traffic to an atomic bomb (Dr. Strangelove, anyone?)
-This is why commuting via bike is far superior. If your bike breaks, it doesn’t cost hundreds of dollars to fix it.
-You don’t end up sitting in your car, stop and go, for an hour.
-Gas is $3.50 a gallon here for the cheap stuff, you can fuel yourself for just $3.50 on McDonald’s.
The pink is, as the fly crows, my commute. Note that no green line goes directly from here to there
Above is a picture of the grand city of Los Angeles and all it’s magnificent (gag) freeways at around 8 AM on a weekday morning. Red means suck it. Yellow means suck it. And what this picture doesn’t show is the 3 – 5 major accidents that render the town helpless, not to mention the 10 – 15 breakdowns that happen and cause an entire lane to become useless.
Los Angeles also has terrible public transportation so no, that isn’t an option.
While sitting in traffic, I often daydream of a ‘no cars allowed’ day, where everyone has to use a bike, and I can bike on the freeways. That nice climb in and out of the valley (during the winter, not summer), a quick jaunt down the 110 (where I’d probably get shot at and my bike stolen) or a quick zip on the 105 east (where I would definitely get shot at and my bike stolen).
Sure, cars have major advantages, like a higher MPH, air conditioning, and the ability to store lots of personal belongings, but but but.. I don’t really have a conclusion for this post. I just wanted to gripe about traffic. Because, you know, no one has ever done that before.
At least I stopped road raging a decade ago. Just gotta be zen on these freeways, or you’ll strip years away on your life.
So, does that mean you don’t bike to work? How many miles is your commute?
The map is pretty small looking, but my job is clear across town. No way to safely bike it, and no way to bike it in under 2 hours. 🙁
Years ago I started visualizing the other cars as simple blocks rather than human-controlled contraptions, and the freeways as a kind of “block avoidance” video game. My destination is a glowing spot somewhere beyond the draw distance of the game’s graphics engine, and I’m surrounded by an always-shifting array of brightly colored blocks. They mostly move in a slow predictable manner relative to my position, but sometimes they move erratically, quickly, and randomly. Oh dear, a block just shifted into my path, must find a way around it without touching any other blocks… no blocks approaching quickly from behind? Maneuver around, block obstacle surmounted, continue toward destination… Try not to think about blowing blocks up with HE napalm missiles…