The Traffic Nation

So I finally got down to writing about the ONE thing that frustrates me every weekday morning (thank you Mandy for that motivating Facebook status of yours!)... If your educated guess was TRAFFIC, thats absolutely right! Living only 16 miles away from work, I thought I would get to work in a heartbeat; utilizing one of the best road systems in the world, the Interstate Highway system ... but little did I know that this interstate system also had other adjectives to it, apart from "awe-inspiring" and "huge". At around 5am every weekday morning, the cars start gushing onto Interstate 93 (yes, I use the word 'gushing') exactly as the water gushes through pipes when opened; only difference being that water moves faster than the cars on I-93  around 7am onwards. It is then on, that the dreaded journey begins... I swear you have to be more awake driving at 10mph than at 70mph, because there is absolutely no way you can know when the damn car in front of you is going to stomp on the brakes. RJs (radio jockeys) have aptly referred to the traffic jams on I-93 as "its a parking lot", "I-93 is a complete mess" and "its not a bumpy ride, its barely even a crawl", (alright, so I made up that last one there) but you get the picture, right?  Only when its about 10am, do the cars start "moving" again at decent speeds and one can then infer that cars are actually faster means of transport than cycling.

Now of course, being stuck in traffic is not fun for anyone unless someone has a car that can drive itself, and the driver can actually watch the morning news on his/her in-dash LED TV ... (yep, thats the future!). You can't change the roads, so lets change the cars. Anyways, this reminds me of a world famous and time tested quotation that goes, "Necessity is the mother of invention". What does this have anything to do with Traffic, you ask. Well, it doesn't have anything to do directly, but the thought of having time on your hands while being stuck in a traffic jam and having nothing to do is absolutely unacceptable. Time is money for the Americans, which is why, drivers here have come up with ingenious ways to utilize this otherwise wasted time. For an easy read, I am just going to list them first and then maybe comment on them, if I feel like it. So, here goes the interesting list of activities (in no particular order), that people indulge in when they are stuck in traffic jams. The normal tasks like sipping coffee and listening to the radio are not included, as they are too mundane of tasks now and probably every driver today can do them with their eyes closed (not that anyone wants you to close your eyes while driving). So here it goes,

1. Shave/Pluck hair
2. Apply makeup etc.
3. Cut/file nails
4. Eat breakfast
5. Read the Newspaper (print edition)
6. Check emails on smartphones/IPADS
7. Texting (A New LAW banning this into effect starting 30th September, 2010 in Massachusetts - All berry users, beware!)
8. Watch a movie on the custom installed in-dash TV (in very rare cases) - Beware of these people, chances are they are going to rear-end you sooner or later.

I can't really think of anything else apart from the ones there ...Thats all that I have personally seen happening on the roads here, if anyone else has seen anything more wackier, comments section below is where you will let me know! Unfortunately, after having driven like this for almost a year now, (8 months co-op last year, and 4 months currently) I dare say I haven't at all tried any of the wacky things, apart from talking to my parents on the phone on most mornings, which kills me at the end of the month, when I find out I have surpassed my alloted minutes by 100s ...

As long as no one gets killed doing these tasks, all is good; I say that because if someone's killed on the road, or gets into a messy accident, it adds to more traffic which is already worse to start off with. Just this other week, there was apparently a rolled over car on I-90 which was preventing the smooth flow of traffic for two days. Just imagine being the cause of that insane two day traffic jam; I don't think many people will sympathize with the person involved in the accident.

And yes, I know I should look for alternatives if I have so many issues with the traffic .. and believe me I am looking into that as hard as I possibly can ... I might end up driving half way to work in the completely opposite direction and then catch the train into Cambridge, but for now I guess ... thats how its got to be ...

Salaam (Peace)!