Traffic

I’m glad I’m a writer for many reasons. One is that I work from home. No commute. No traffic!

Years ago I worked in downtown Los Angeles before there was a subway. A displaced Pittsburgher, I took buses to work as a lawyer, not buying into the fact that most Los Angeles residents, especially in those days, spurned public transportation. When I became pregnant with our second son, though, I became an Angeleno in that respect, too, and started driving to work.

Of course, back then, my ten-mile drive to downtown took no more than around half an hour. Now, to get to downtown LA, no matter which day of the week it is, or what time of day, it’s usually a lot longer. On the other hand, there’s now a subway. When I did a temporary, part-time law gig downtown a couple of years ago, I was able to take a nice, quick, hassle-free ride each way because I’m fortunate enough to live near one of the very few subway stops in the city.

I used to enjoy working full-time as a lawyer, but I wound up quitting my job when it moved from downtown LA to Brea, from 10 miles to 50 miles from my home. I did that commute for two years, rising really early in the morning to avoid the worst traffic--and to give myself an hour to write before work time officially started. There was never an easy way to deal with the commute home, though, so when the company started downsizing, I volunteered to be one of the downsizees.

So why am I blogging now about traffic? Well, yesterday my husband returned from a trip and I went to pick him up at Los Angeles International Airport. I visited with friends who live nearby first and was patting myself on the back for driving the right direction to get there. Going south on the 405 Freeway was a breeze--but I pitied the poor drivers caught in the traffic jam going north. Then, after dinner, when my husband’s plane landed, I went to LAX--and got caught in a massive traffic jam at the arrivals area of the multiple terminals. There were scads of vehicles going abysmally slowly, and many of the access drives from the outer traffic ring to the curb where passengers could be picked up were blocked, confusing things even more. Ugh! I finally found find my husband, and we got out of there.

Which was when we ran into more traffic, on the 405 Freeway going north again. This time it was from nighttime road construction, although it wasn’t the Carmageddon of a couple of months ago where the entire freeway was shut down for a weekend--which turned out to be a nonevent. No, this consisted of closed lanes and cars darting at high speeds from one open lane to the next, then having to slow or stop because there were simply too many vehicles.

Well, we finally got home. I may go out today... or not. Staying home to write sounds like a much better idea!

Is there traffic where you live? Do you have a long commute? How do you deal with it?