Traffic Copter

[dodint]

I want a thread where I can piss and moan about traffic, independent of whinging about the weather.

Two days ago I got the three full miles of westbound 376 tunnel traffic, meaning all the way back to 79B Churchill left exit. Fine, hey, jokes on me it was raining.

Today I leave a half hour earlier and there is, gracious me!, only one mile of stopped congestion before the Squirrel Hill tunnel. I'm actually on pace to be earlier to work than I planned. Happy Day! Oh, wait, some jag in a luxury sedan got their car split in **** half on the Boulevard of the Allies near Duquense Law. My guess is they were in the stopped right lane and thought they'd just go ahead and slide out to the left and jump ahead of some folks and they got obliterated by a car moving at speed in the left lane. Differential of speed kills, folks. Anyway, this blocks both lanes indefinitely and I sit for about 30 minutes while the wreckers move their way through traffic.
Make it through that and get down to the 7th Ave exit which is inexplicably completely blocked up with people trying to make the left onto Grant. I creep down the off ramp, can see my office overhead for the entire 25 minutes. Argh.
Get to work later than the day before. I have never seen significant traffic in either of these areas. This city never ceases to amaze.

DVE isn't doing much in the way of original programming this week; not sure if you heard but there is a Steeler game this weekend. Better track down Kevin Greene and relive some of those glory days from over 20 years ago. Carnell Lake reference, woooo!

[Morkle]

I always wonder what it'd be like to live in LA with the traffic they have. I feel like this is the maximum amount of traffic I can deal with before I go insane.

[dodint]

Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us) by Tom Vanderbilt is a fantastic read. I grabbed it in a library on a whim one day and it changed my outlook on traffic. That was several years ago and I likely need to read it again because I find myself highly annoyed twice a day everyday now.

https://www.amazon.com/Traffic-Drive-Wh ... 0307277194

The guy has a blog but it's most cycling propaganda. As if a 10-speed is going to help me get in from Westmoreland county.

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

Holy **** shaf, you need a new job. You're starting to turn into the women you work with.

[dodint]

Not going to lie, I was much happier in Wisconsin. Quality of life was through the roof. Here? Not so much. It'll correct itself through the summer but I'm super miserable right now. Not even in some acute angry way, just defeated.

[blackjack68]

See if you can find it as an audio book to listen to while you wait in traffic.

[columbia]

I've heard that PA prisons are forcing the inmates to listen to audio books of dodint complaining.

[dodint]

See if you can find it as an audio book to listen to while you wait in traffic.

I have an overflowing podcast library. I was only listening to DVE because I THOUGHT I was close to work, then I hit the 7th Ave backup.

Oh, wait. nvm. ISWYDT.

[Silentom]

DVE and most other Pittsburgh radio is sht.

[robbiestoupe]

See if you can find it as an audio book to listen to while you wait in traffic.

[Freddy Rumsen]

"What Can't Dodint Complain About?"

[dodint]

More of a pamphlet, really.

[meow]

People that get mad at traffic expect too much from your average person. Lower your expectations of society and you'll be alright.

[Beveridge]

Don't you ride a bus?

[dodint]

Sometimes. My employer dicked up my bus pass this month so I've been driving more. Not that it's any cheaper, it costs almost twice as much to drive than to take the bus, but without a full pass I've been lazy about actually catching it.

[Beveridge]

Ah, I forgot about that.

Ability to complain while driving is valid.

[Miami Vice]

I've never lived more than 4 miles from my office. I have coworkers downtown who live in places like Rural Valley, West Shamokin, Cadogan, and Ford City. I think they're all nuts.

I can appreciate someone who enjoys the country wanting to live there, but how can someone buy into that quality of life and then spend 2+ hours a day in a car? Not to mention missing out on all conveniences of a city (mostly in nightlife and food).

I can jog to and from work. A bus ride is 10 minutes. And if I go out with friends or coworkers after work I'm a 10 minute $8 Uber ride from home.

[Beveridge]

I get mad if I get one of the four lights in town red on my way to work.

I'd die in the city.

[Miami Vice]

I get mad if I get one of the four lights in town red on my way to work.

I'd die in the city.

That's one of the great things about not having to drive. I can sit on the bus and get the jump on all my email or read the market news for the day.

But even the people who live in Allison Park or Moon or Mt Lebo are stuck in way more traffic than I am.

[tifosi77]

I always wonder what it'd be like to live in LA with the traffic they have. I feel like this is the maximum amount of traffic I can deal with before I go insane.

When we first moved to the Valley, I had a 22-mile commute. In the mornings it was reliably 75-90 minutes. There were days when I would be in my car for an hour before I got out of what I could rightly call my own neighborhood. Evenings were usually a bit shorter, in the 50-70 minute range, but during the Carmageddon bridge construction across the 405 I had multiple homeward commutes of 2+ hours, and a couple that topped 3 hours. 22 miles.

People here dodint and moan about traffic all the time. And I'm like "Aw..... you're so cute!" My current commute is exactly the same distance as the one I described above, and it is rarely more than 40-45 minutes minutes. Since we moved to SF on Sept 1, I have experienced precisely one day that had anything even remotely recognizable to me as traffic.

[Morkle]

Yea, that's insanity. I couldn't handle that I don't think.

[LITT]

We spent a week in LA with a friend. We drove a fair amount. I actually didn't mind The traffic as it was sort of remarkable how such large thoroughfares can have so much traffic at all times of say. It seemed like rush hour went from 6a-1030a and then 1045a-1230a. It's crazy

[tifosi77]

That's a fairly accurate assessment. It's always rush hour. But sometimes it's just more rush hour.

My buddy and I went to Disneyland on Thanksgiving Day back in 2000. From my apartment to Anaheim in like 27 minutes. It still feels like it was a dream. Or maybe a live action trailer for that zombie movie where London was empty.

[Silentom]

dodint when he drives into work:

[slappybrown]

I've never lived more than 4 miles from my office. I have coworkers downtown who live in places like Rural Valley, West Shamokin, Cadogan, and Ford City. I think they're all nuts.

I can appreciate someone who enjoys the country wanting to live there, but how can someone buy into that quality of life and then spend 2+ hours a day in a car? Not to mention missing out on all conveniences of a city (mostly in nightlife and food).

I can jog to and from work. A bus ride is 10 minutes. And if I go out with friends or coworkers after work I'm a 10 minute $8 Uber ride from home.

3 of those are not real places @dodint