At work this week, I was talking with a colleague about what time we get to the office in the morning. He said, "Oh, between 8-9, really depends on traffic." When I asked him where he was coming from, he explained he lived in the South end of the city (code for expensive suburbs). This is about 18 km from our office. He then proceeded to complain how "in a city like this, it's ridiculous that it should take an hour to commute!"
Umm...actually, it's not. You and everyone else want to live in the "safe", new suburbs. And you and everyone else want to commute from the suburbs into downtown. Do you see a problem here? No matter how many new roads and bridges the city builds, the suburbs will keep growing and more cars will be on the road, in your way, cutting you off. Fun, right? Traffic is not a surprise. The rules of commuting are: - Traffic is bad and will always get worse - Construction will happen every summer, always on the route you need to take to get to work - Winter will happen every year, and will include big snowstorms that clog up the roads and cause lots of accidents Don't plan your commute for best case scenario - plan for the worst. If there's a snowstorm AND construction, will I still be able to get to work? What if my car breaks down? Even if you think environmentalism and biking are for crazy lefties, it doesn't matter. This is about designing your life around the things you can't control. I can't control traffic, weather, or road work, so rather than bitch about them, I work around them. Obviously, it's not always possible to have a car-free commute. But it is possible to improve your commute through conscious choices. For most couples, even if one person has a job that requires car commuting (they may drive for work or work in an industrial area, for example), there are very few scenarios where both partners should have to drive. At a minimum, you should be able to live in a location where at least one partner can walk/bike/transit to work and avoid the traffic trap.
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