Random thought
I’m not complaining about traffic or anything, just about the traffic report.
Every morning I hear the traffic report in the news before I leave for work. As usual traffic is backed up to my on ramp, and here’s the part I don’t get, “traffic on the 405 is slower than normal”. Granted some days they actually tell you to leave 15 to 20 minute early, what’s up with that, am I supposed to get up 15 to 20 minutes early every morning to listen to the traffic report to know if I have to leave earlier that day? (BTW, very rarely, unless there’s an accident is it true that I need to leave 15 to 20 minutes earlier, I know this because I usually don’t pay attention to that and leave at my normal time anyway, and imagine this, get to work at the same time I normally do) That’s simply not going to happen. I’m not getting up before 5 every morning simply because the traffic reporter doesn’t know what traffic is like before I go to bed.
But I digress, what is this “slower than normal” crap. If traffic is slower than normal 5 out of 5 days a week, at what point does it become normal. And while we’re on the point, what does the traffic announcer define as normal? I’ve accepted that as a result of where I choose to work and where I live, I’m going to have to commute. Honestly, it’s simply not a bother for me, and I actually enjoy (yes I know I’m sick) the leisurely commute to work and back home again. I’ve been known to go out of my way and simply not take the freeway, even though it takes longer, for some ME time. I find it’s a great time to refocus from my work life to my not work life, a transition period if you will.
I left for work an hour early this morning, I was bored and decided to see if I could figure out what normal is by leaving an hour early. Traffic report said that traffic was normal, well guess what, it took me just as long to get to work this morning as it does for me to get to work on a “slower than normal” morning.
So if you’re a traffic reporter can you define what “normal” is, so if I have an early morning meeting, I can acutally plan ahead of time and be awake to leave 15 - 20 minute early if I need to. I need precious little sleep, but it’d be easier to know if I need to get to bed before 1 am so I can get my minimum 4 hours of sleep. I know what my idea of normal is, but your idea of normal and mine don’t seem to match up.
Traffic reporting and weather reporting - what a cushy gig!
October 3rd, 2007 at 5:07 pm
Amuses me that your end of the 405 and our end of the 405 are both nasty slow-moving beasts. But, you hit it on the head when you said you choose where to live and where to work, so the commute is the price. Traffic reporters just have to be “dramatic” or something~
October 4th, 2007 at 8:27 am
You know, I was figuring that the 405 up here was going to be as bad as the 405 down there. But what I find fascinating is that there were all sorts of reports from the news about HOW AWFUL the 405 was and the 5 south through Fife was backed up for MILES and it was the end of the worth! OMG, so wrong. These traffic reporters DON’T KNOW WHAT TRAFFIC IS!!!! Heehee!
October 4th, 2007 at 9:48 am