I love subtext.

1) your back bumper is from another car's front.

2) you didn't stay home, where it's nice and warm.

3) Those Voices Again are predicting the weather again.

4) some slicker was walking between the lanes on the interstates collecting the $12 daily parking fee, and you didn't have exact change.

these are the realities of carefree metropolitan Twin Cities winter commuting. they don't plow, they put down sand and salt. except sand blows off and salt doesn't work at 17 below.

and it's no fun with a huge snowplow stuck in traffic behind you, honking, honking, honking.

that's why I ride the bus. besides, it's already warmed up by the time I get on ;)

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if this is a new economy, how come everybody wants my old-fashioned money?

You would think that people who are more accustomed to snow or some other Winterish weather would have driving in it down to a science, or an art. Apparently not.

Here in Georgia, people don't know how to drive in the rain, let alone snow and/or ice. Once a single raindrop hits the ground, it's like the driving program in everybody crashes, and has to be reinstalled.

PatrickRsGhost

Riding the bus would be fine (assuming it went where you're going, when you needed it), but it necessarily involves standing for a half an hour (sometimes more) in a bus shelter. Or at a stop with no shelter. This is a problem I never found a solution for, until I got a car.

If the radio announcer states that there are hour-long delays on your commute, fully empty your bladder before you leave home and don't drink all 24 oz of coffee in your travel mug early in your commute.

yah, that's for sure. today I've got on my Duofolds, two sets of warm wool socks, the Sorels, T-shirt and lumberjack shirt, ushanka, parka, and the chopper mitts. oh, and a scarf.

and a penlight to wave the bus down since the streetlight bulb was last changed in 1999 by my work stop.

gets a guy through waiting with no shelter, no buildings. since the Beach House Fairy hasn't come through, that's life in Minnesnowta, ya sure ya betcha.

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if this is a new economy, how come everybody wants my old-fashioned money?

The same advice keeps coming up every time bad road conditions come up in conversation: stop following so close! And do you think there are a lot of people who don't know that? No, they know.

The root of the problem is selfishness, mostly. But it's a 2-part selfishness, coming from 2 different angles. It starts with the guy who sees enough room for his car in the next lane, and takes it. They don't seem to care that the car behind that space was using that space as a cushion between them and the next car ahead. The merger thinks "You snooze, you lose." Or, they think "I'm in a bigger hurry than you, so let me by and I'll be on my way." Whatever it is, they selfishly take that space that you were saving for the next time everyone slams on their brakes...

So what do you do about it? Well, either you keep letting people cut in front of you, or you eliminate the space. And its the latter option that most seem to go for... Driving on ice on the highway is a test to see how much tolerance you have for risk. How close can you get before your knuckles pop... You don't want to leave enough room for someone to cut in, so you slowly edge closer and closer to the car in front of you, watching as your knuckles turn whiter and whiter. At some point, you acknowledge that a sudden decrease in traffic speed could be damaging, and you decide that you're close enough. But the problem is, you were already too close 40 feet ago.

But you don't want to get cut off, so you take your risks and pray for everyone in front of you to keep their feet off the brake (probably a good idea in this weather anyway). It's selfishness to want to keep your "place in line," but it's no less selfish than the guy who wants to take your place.

It's a chicken-and-egg scenario... Who came first, the guy who takes your lead-space, or the guy who eliminates their lead-space to prevent it from getting taken? Doesn't really matter, it's selfish either way.

Really, the problem seems to stem from that sense of entitlement that has people feeling like they deserve to get home before the guy behind them, because you were there first, and so you should get to the front of the line first, because it's "fair."

The selfless, those who keep the proper distance and don't seem to care that they keep getting cut off (and have to keep slowing down to rebuild their following-distance), are punished for their kindness. And they get it from both ends, because the guy stuck behind the selfless is mad because the car in front of them keeps letting people in front, thereby affecting their own place in line. And so they tailgate, honk, flash their brights, or all of the above.

I think we could solve this problem if everyone on the road managed to collectively change their view, from a selfish race to the finish, into a collective team effort for everyone to get home safely. When you're competing against others, you usually want to see your competition fail... In a team effort, you want everyone on your team to succeed, and you'll be happy to take a personal sacrifice to help your teammates.

It would also help if the people on the other end of your commute (your boss, spouse, whatever) would be a little more forgiving about arriving late. If you're 20 minutes late to work because you were stuck in traffic, it's not doing any good to blame the driver... I know it's easy to say "you should've left 20 minutes earlier," but that's just foolish, nobody can predict the speed of traffic and it's wasteful to leave an extra hour early just because there might be a traffic jam. That sort of blame-placing attitude is what causes people to be in a hurry in the first place. If I'm gonna be late, I'm gonna be late, and I don't give a crap if you've got a problem with that...
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Personally, I like my solution to the problem: I'm dialed in to work, still wearing my bathrobe with a full head of bed-hair, a blanket to keep my legs warm. My car is nice and comfy-warm inside the heated underground garage. I haven't been close to the outdoors today. It's nice.

Simple. Despite having a four wheel drive vehicle with brand new Rugged Trail All Terrain tires, I parked it in the garage Sunday and that's where it has been. I no longer have to commute and I am enjoying it. My only venture out on the roads was a stroll in the snow with YakTrax on my soles.

Davydd
porktenderloinsandwich.com

today's example: "eek, it's snowing, leave plenty of space ahead of you."

today's gotcha: they list highway capacity with the cars flowing along two cars apart. in the city with the 60 mph limit, which nobody follows and they don't enforce because you're "moving with the traffic," you should have two car lengths for every 10 mph between cars. that's 12 car lengths.

that's in good weather, add more if it's slippery or wet.

you see that, maybe, at 4 am.

in other places, better places, folks this disingenuous sleep under bridges, not design them.

no offense, just sayin'... .

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if this is a new economy, how come everybody wants my old-fashioned money?

It would also help if the people on the other end of your commute (your boss, spouse, whatever) would be a little more forgiving about arriving late. If you're 20 minutes late to work because you were stuck in traffic, it's not doing any good to blame the driver... I know it's easy to say "you should've left 20 minutes earlier," but that's just foolish, nobody can predict the speed of traffic and it's wasteful to leave an extra hour early just because there might be a traffic jam. That sort of blame-placing attitude is what causes people to be in a hurry in the first place. If I'm gonna be late, I'm gonna be late, and I don't give a crap if you've got a problem with that...

Luckily my boss is very forgiving about me being a few minutes, or even an hour, late. He knows my situation: I live on one side of the state, I work on the other side of the state, and I have to drive through downtown Atlanta to get to either. It's a 70-some mile commute one way. Yesterday I was talking to him with another employee we just brought over from one of our satellite offices, trying to figure out how to divide her time between our department and another department, which needs her for at least 8 hours a week. I told my boss that it didn't make a lick of difference what time I left work to go home. If I left at 5 PM or 6 PM, I'd still run into heavy traffic.

The only way, I discovered, to really beat the traffic was to leave at 6 PM, stop at the nearby Cracker Barrel, eat supper, eat dessert (maybe), pay for the meal, walk around the store and look at all the country-themed kitsch, then head home. The only downside is I'd get home at around 9 PM, pretty much close to when I go to bed.

They even understand if I wait an extra hour or two to leave the house if it was raining, since there aren't any lights on the Interstates until you get into Atlanta. Rain + dark = zero visibility, even with your headlights on "brighter than the sun" setting.

PatrickRsGhost

If you are not driving on the slick roads because your 1978 Camaro is jacked up on blocks in front of your mobile home, you might be a redneck.

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