traffic in town

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  • #2085816
    The Real Truth
    Participant

    how to deal with traffic on a daily basis.
    and is there any one to blame (builders)?

    #2085819
    ujm
    Participant

    Get a helicopter.

    #2085825
    ☕️coffee addict
    Participant

    “how to deal with traffic on a daily basis.“

    Acceptance

    “and is there any one to blame (builders)?“

    Government, if there was more lanes there would be less traffic, if there was less crime more people would take the subway

    #2085828
    n0mesorah
    Participant

    Come outback and see what real traffic delays are.

    #2085831
    Gadolhadorah
    Participant

    Whats “in-town”? Many of us discovered an extra 5-10 hrs/week of time during Covid shutdowns not commuting and working from home. Even a day or two weekly of commuting back to the office now seems like an imposition. Good news is that most clients discovered they didn’t need to pay obscene hourly billing rates and airfares to have us fly to their locations for in-person meetings and could get by in most cases with a video meeting. Not having to navigate the airports and flights for same-day or overnight trips is even better than avoiding the drive back and forth to the office.

    #2085848
    commonsaychel
    Participant

    Buy the bridge I have for sale.

    #2085849

    Hashem sent this traffic to make you better! Slow down, learn Mishna by heart, listen to a tape, talk to the kids in your car, call your mother, let a couple of people in front of you, drink coffee slowly, review LSAT, meditate, solve Fermat theorem. All provided you can do it safely, of course. I notice that when I am doing something productive, I am a safer and better driver as I am not in a hurry to get somewhere, I am OK to let others go before me – I would even break on yellow (not a minhag in my area) just to finish the sugya!

    #2086071
    Avram in MD
    Participant

    coffee addict,

    “Government, if there was more lanes there would be less traffic”

    More lanes may alleviate some issues, but not all, especially bottleneck situations. Just like throwing an army of utility workers into a job won’t make it go any faster if their cherry picker can only hold one person.

    #2086077
    Avram in MD
    Participant

    Always_Ask_Questions,

    “Slow down, learn Mishna by heart, listen to a tape, talk to the kids in your car, call your mother, let a couple of people in front of you, drink coffee slowly…”

    All great suggestions that can help reclaim commuting time as a productive part of life. I just have one thing to add – my stress behind the wheel is connected to lateness, and if I’m sitting in traffic and getting late for something, no thoughts, tapes, or conversations will alleviate my stress or turn back the clock. So to me, the most important way to cope with traffic is to accept its existence and account for it in my planning. My wife’s rule of thumb for urban driving is to double the time. If the mapping software estimates a drive will take 15 minutes, plan for it lasting 30. A 30 minute drive will actually take an hour, etc. And don’t forget to include extra time for parking and walking to the destination (extra 5 minutes if there’s a parking lot, extra 15 minutes if you have to park on a street, and even more extra time if you’re bringing kids). On many an occasion you’ll “hurry up and wait” as they say in the military, but then you can implement AAQ’s great suggestions with no stress. And if something comes up on the way, like spilling coffee on your shirt, you’ll likely have more time to deal with it without becoming truly late.

    #2086078
    Yserbius123
    Participant

    Not sure what you mean, I don’t see any traffic in town.

    #2086095
    ujm
    Participant

    “And if something comes up on the way, like spilling coffee on your shirt”

    Please don’t drink and drive.

    #2086096
    ujm
    Participant

    “And if something comes up on the way, like spilling coffee on your shirt”

    Please don’t drink and drive.

    #2086112
    akuperma
    Participant

    If you don’t like the traffic in a big city, leave. There is life elsewhere.

    P.S. I assume the original poster is not serving a sentence under which he is confined to New York City as a form of punishment (if he is, he has my sympathies).

    #2086264

    Avram, great advice on timing! It is actually better works other way – first, you organize your trips well, then you look forward to time when you can enjoy your learning, coffee time, or with your kids or spouse, or friend – and then it is easier to leave 30 minutes earlier. Positive motivation. For example, I actually found that elementary school kids interact well with parents when confined to car seats, so morning was great time to teach them something important before school injects their priorities.

    #2086266

    Here is a really tough case I encountered lately in a long commute that is really difficult from the point of view of middos, your advice is appreciated:

    two lanes narrow into one into a turn to another highway. 90% of cars organize into one lane long before the turn and move slowly for 5-15 minutes. 10% of cars speed by and then merge in right before the turn. Of course, more than 10% ends up merging in, significantly delaying the rest.

    What are the options?
    1) Ignore them and stay in the slow lane, observing this injustice and cheated of time, getting agitated and higher blood pressure
    2) Accept suffering as punishment for other avonos
    3) count how many Jews fly by
    4) spend time in traffic to complain about it in CR
    5) Get into fast lane and cheat others. Maybe use a Sombrero instead of a black hat to pretend to avoid hillul Hashem
    6) block slowly in the fast lane, showing them how to behave and praying that those drivers are not armed
    7) drive a different route with extra 10 minutes to avoid seeing this ugliness

    which one would you choose or any better suggestions?

    #2086277
    🍫Syag Lchochma
    Participant

    How much of your trash talking do we have to listen to? It is amazing how you can turn any conversation or joke into a complaint about black hats, jews etc. I’m sure there are other forums that would love to hear complain incessantly about all the typical bigotry, personally it would be nicer to hear something less offensive if not actually positive.

    #2086328

    Syag, I am only complaining about my lack of middos and asking for an advice. I did not say this was in Monsey!

    #2086335
    🍫Syag Lchochma
    Participant

    I’m sorry you think it’s okay to insult people on a regular basis as long as you pretend it’s a joke. If this is the torah true atmosphere you create in your home than I feel sorry for you. “Hey kids, those black hatters may look devoted devoted to Torah but I have a list of faults for you to focus on. If we can label them as fake we don’t have to strive to imitate any of their selflessness”

    #2086392
    ubiquitin
    Participant

    “Of course, more than 10% ends up merging in, significantly delaying the rest.”

    This is incorrect.
    The way you describe is very inefficent and causes traffic.
    bot h lanes should be utilized until the end then merge in an alternating fashion

    This has been studied over and over
    See for example “EVALUATION OF THE LATE MERGE WORK ZONE TRAFFIC CONTROL STRATEGY ”

    or “Dynamic Late Merge Control Concept for Work Zones on Rural Freeways”

    so to answer your question

    “which one would you choose or any better suggestions?”
    There is a clear better suggestion. stay in your lane and merge at the last minute better for you, AND better for society. The rare win win.

    #2086390
    Avram in MD
    Participant

    Always_Ask_Questions,

    “two lanes narrow into one into a turn to another highway.” … What are the options? … 2) Accept suffering as punishment for other avonos

    Sounds like you are describing the merge to get from I-70 eastbound to I-695 (Baltimore Beltway) heading north, in which case yes you are definitely there to atone for your aveiros.

    “90% of cars organize into one lane long before the turn and move slowly for 5-15 minutes. 10% of cars speed by and then merge in right before the turn. Of course, more than 10% ends up merging in, significantly delaying the rest.”

    My take: 1) Some of the people “speeding by” to merge further up are not in your good-behavior lane because your good-behavior comrades are not letting them in. So many times I have tried to merge into a slower moving lane, either to queue up as in your example or because I need to exit, and not a soul lets me in. I’ve almost taken to not even turning my blinker on, because the blinker signals these friendly people to pull up right to the bumper of the car in front of them. 2) Part of the big delay is because the beneficent souls who are in the “correct” lane care more about being vindictive towards those they perceive as being in the “wrong” lane than providing as smooth a flow of traffic as possible for those behind them. 3) Bottlenecks are not always due to human failings – vehicles cannot double their speed when the lanes halve into a dangerous curve and merge.

    What are the options?

    If you had your eyes in your gemara or on your cell phone, or your coffee mug like civilized drivers, you wouldn’t even notice the maleficence around you. You wouldn’t even notice the slowdowns in front of you!

    “3) count how many Jews fly by”

    That would be antisemitic.

    #2086388

    Syag, all it was in my suggestion that if someone chooses to cut into the traffic (and I was tempted) that one will probably think about not looking Jewish. Someone will not. I thought of a black hat as a visible sign of a driver. If someone says a sticker “darchei Torah noam”, they might think of taking that down too. On that note, yes, I was a couple of times embarrassed when I looked at a driver who cut me off, and he had the hat on. Bu this would be, as you say, unfair – I am sure I was 1000 times cut off by someone else and did not pay attention. I guess the question for the kahal here would be – when you know that people see you as Jewish, does it affect your behavior in some way? Would you not drive in front of someone, or grab something because of that? I am sure there are people who will behave properly anonymously, and there are those who do not anyway, being so used to their levush and not thinking how the world sees them.

    #2088822
    Participant
    Participant

    traffic lights are to blame. I always drive as fast as I could to beat the traffic, but there are always lights in the way which just adds my vehicle to the traffic. And often there are other vehicles stuck at the light in front of me.

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