Just one more lane, that’ll fix everything
Traffic was close to zero here during covid lockdowns. It was bliss - it was quiet and serene like I’ve never experienced before.
Is it wrong to be wistful about the car-free depths of a pandemic?
Absolutely not, that shit was sick. What wasn’t sick is that I had to work through the pandemic. 😡
Tbh I’ve been glad that I had the privilege to get out of my flat for work because of the many stories I’ve been told about ppl almost going insane. Then again I could have organised more than one online-“LAN” party and just gamed the whole time with my friends. But I also like my workplace at the time as I’ve been actively researching in the virology field and every day turned out to be full of suprises regarding SARS-CoV-2.
I have a drawbridge on my way to work. A drawbridge! Barges come in under that bridge.
Different philosophy around here. No such thing as late really because a random one hour delay is just too much to solve by leaving early.
Boss: locks you in the building
Boss: you live here now. I expect 3x productivity for a $0.50 cent raise with a maximum daily rate of quiet mumbling. Problem solved!
(I wrote that when groggy, but my thinking was that it’s supposed to be read aloud/verbally, so you’d ignore the $ and say the cents. My brain was still asleep.)
About $3.50
E: also why do we say “three dollars and fifty cents” when it’s clearly “dollar three [and] fifty [cents]”. Language weird, return to grunts.
If you had a 1974 Dodge Monaco, preferably the police cruiser version, you could jump that drawbridge with no problem.
Okay I have no drawbridges close by, is it because traffic backs up so much or because the drawbridge takes so long? I imagine a combination so really curious on the drawbridge time needed I guess.
Used to live in a city that would raise a bridge for a ship but I tried not to travel that way if possible. It was on the coast so you could drive around, though probably worse traffic felt like it was moving.
It’s both. Some large and slow ships can take half an hour just to go under the bridge. By then you’ve accumulated a significant back up of traffic.
Oh I had no idea they could take that long, the bridge I knew about obviously handled much smaller ships I think like 15mins was max for the bridge time from the city I knew. Of course this city was still like 30mins driving end to end (in better traffic) so not huge. Appreciate the reply, thank you, learned something which is always a bonus.
This is no longer relevant to me, as I now work from home; but I felt the same way a few years back when I used to commute. Then a giant cargo ship crashed into the bridge I used to cross daily (which was not a drawbridge but preceded one on my commute) and collapsed it.
At least, I expect, me being late that day would have been excusable.
Traffic in my area when going to work is completely random; ranges from 45min to 65 minutes (going home is always hell, at least 70 minutes guaranteed)
As someone that lives in a small city where my morning commute is 15 minutes, and 20 on the way home, this is fucking insane to me. 70 minutes is 3/4 of the way to the next town at highway speeds.
Edit: To add to that, I work four 10s rather than five 8s a week. If I had to drive that long every day for work, I’d only have about an hour and a half - 2 hours to relax before it’s time for bed if I want 8 hours of sleep.
Believe me, I know. I was lied to when I took this job.
They said on site is only mandatory for the first two weeks to get up to speed.
Then I can transition into work from home and come in only when needed.
Then I approached them because it was almost 2 months at the time, and they replied with “You need supervision so you have to come in”.
The part that pissed me off is that NO ONE sits next to me or helps me in any way all day.
That’s why I prefer buses. Even if it takes much longer to go to destination, I can always listen to podcasts or watch something on YouTube.
I was debating it, but it’s close to 2 hours with public transit, with no chances of it being faster.
I’d have to take one bus, one train, one subway, then another bus
I’d have to take one bus, one train, one subway, then another bus
That’s why I don’t prefer buses, especially if there are long delays in-between stops.
When I was younger I had to take the bus to work across town and it involved multiple transfers, long waits, and a 3 mile round trip walk. I had to leave my house at 4:30 am to be on the first bus of the day, which was 4:45 am, just to be at work at 7:10 am. If I missed the first bus by a couple minutes then I was automatically an hour late since they didn’t start running every half hour until a couple hours later in the day.
I’ll bet there’s a pattern to it. If you found out which companies have hybrid office policies, and which days of the week they go in, I bet it would align nicely with the days that the traffic is worse.
My Favorite Merger
