traffic - another vote for transit

My new job is very flexible with regard to hours on office days. That means that I get to choose what time I come in, but since my journey includes 3 bridges each day traffic is definitely a factor. This week I have been working with the coordinator I will be replacing (while she is having a baby!) and have been coming in for 8am, which works out fairly well. It allows me to leave by 4pm and thus miss the bulk of the really bad traffic.

Yesterday however, was the worst day yet (traffic-wise) and it started first thing in the morning. Despite leaving at exactly the same time the day before, yesterday was considerably busier - there was no accident, it was just busy. As my little bar chugged its way up the second bridge of my trip, I notice a pickup truck is coming up the carpool lane beside me. The two lanes merge into one and there was a significant amount of space behind me.

I had JUST let a person merge in front of me only moments before, so of course, I ride the car in front of me, assuming that the truck will back off and slip in behind me. No dice.

Instead he speeds up and just starts moving into my lane. Does he put on his blinker? Nope, he just moves over and if you've ever seen my car I'm sure you can imagine that in a fight between a pick-up and my Toyota, I would probably lose. Fortunately there is room in the next lane over and I jerk my car into the other lane, with little time to spare.

Now of course I'm angry and don't want to go behind the truck--out of principle--but will the bitch in the car in front of me (whom I already let in) allow me to merge back into the lane in front of her? Nope, she speeds up and rides the space.

Eventually I manage to merge back over and make my exit - I think I actually may have made it in front of the truck, because they passed me again on the road. Only this time the man in the truck (with two teenage looking boys - way to set an example) gave me the middle finger while pretending to pick his nose. Give me a f'n break...What an asshole.

On the way home, it takes me half an hour to get through the traffic to get over the same bridge, which takes less than 5 minutes when there is no traffic. Grrrr.

The point of this rant, is that before I even started the job, I thought perhaps transit would be the way to go. I imagined (and schedules confirmed) that in terms of time the bus would be close if not faster than driving, plus I wouldn't have the stress of driving after a long day of work.

Take into consideration the fact that I will likely have to drive the same distance to and from work sites with regular frequency all summer long, and that's another vote for transit.

Work also provides an employee bus plan that discounts your monthly pass by about $10 so I think I must be up to three votes for transit now.

Next week, when I don't have to meet anyone first thing in the morning at work, I intend to try getting a ride part way with J and see what time that gets me to work. I'm anticipating 8:30, which could work fabulously for me, except for the days when I have softball...

Tags:/traffic/transit/