I was recently held up in absolute dead stop traffic. We were sitting on the tarmac with no movement for well over an hour, in the 80 degree sun, before I felt obliged to leave my car and go see if it was because of roadwork or an accident or what.
I joined a small crowd of onlookers after reaching the head, spectating a row of sit-in protesters. One driver had tried to get around but a few protesters moved tactically so that he couldn’t go any further without injuring somebody.
I didn’t wait around, although there were people phoning the police and some tempers beginning to flare. So I head back to my car. The dairy groceries that I picked up on the way back from work had begun to spoil.
I was late home by nearly three hours, so no time to unwind. Just enough to pack away some old leftovers before heading off to sleep and restart cycle all over, -1 hour or so of sleep.
Previously, I had no opinion whatsoever on whether cars=good or cars=bad. But after being held up in traffic, wasting money, wasting gas, losing sleep and perhaps a bit of my sanity I am now totally on board with the Fuck Cars movement. I couldn’t imagine a more convincing strategy to bring people over to your perspective. Excellent thinking. Good job.
I shit you not, on occasions that I have taken a train, I have had the pleasure to experience the train inexplicably rolling to a stop while we all sit waiting, only for the intercom to cackle out a barely intelligible “explanation” and that we will soon be on our way again.
Why did it stop? Still don’t know. How long were we stopped for? About as long as I was stuck in traffic earlier.
In short, no. And on that day, I found myself wishing I had just driven instead. The parking meter fee I was avoiding would have been much preferable, in retrospect.