I drive to work every day. Most of the time I enjoy my drive, as it takes me through some beautiful parts of the city and also along the seaside. The duration of the drive varies anywhere between 10 minutes, when the traffic is light, up to 25 minutes if I am unlucky and need to drive during the rush hour. As I am not forced to be in the lab at a given hour, I rarely feel pressed for time when I drive. However, my stress level rises occasionally, if I meet bad drives or encounter a "red wave" at the traffic lights.
Traffic lights are a somewhat strange construction, a necessity that keeps the traffic flowing, however, they also adequately know how to ruin our day. Or at least our drive. Sometimes, if I miss one green light, the rest of the traffic lights on my way will be red. Of course, it can be the other way around as well, when I hit the "green wave", which unfortunately happens very rarely and usually when I need it the least. Then there are the always red ones. No matter when I arrive, they always turn red, making me turn red in return.
I stumbled upon this amusing clip, showing a somewhat organized traffic chaos at an intersection somewhere in the world. One that would benefit strongly from having a traffic light installed.
16 comments:
When traffic lights turn from green to orange here (amber in the UK IIRC) it's an indication for 80% of the traffic to speed up and for 19% of the traffic to slow down.
The 1% of us that are left take it as an indication to watch our backs and get out of the way if we can.
Tom
That's frighteningly comical. Of course they speed it up to a point where it looks like so many near misses, when I'm sure their safety is much less precarious than that in real time. Very amusing! :)
Oh my gosh, I am so happy we have a trafiic lights in here and good traffic system, because I go to my first driving lesson tomorow :D
btw, I tagged you on my blog :)
Ahoj, Tereza*
Amazing how amongst the choas they get through! :D
Is that traffic light sculpture in your country? That is a bit extreme!
I always get frustrated when I miss those green lights. What should be about a 5/10 minute ride to work can be 15/20 with red lights and traffic. Don't forget to add in some construction to the mix! :(
But, I will gladly take that over my years ago of commuting to work which would take an hour one way!!
And more if there were any accidents or god forbid it should be raining! :D We must count our small blessings...
Holy crap! How did no one get killed at that intersection?!
I burst out laughing one day when Ryan was 3 or 4... I asked her what red lights mean and she said 'stop.' Green? 'Go!' Yellow? 'Drive really fast and say, "hold on, baby!"'
Good Heavens! I couldn't handle a traffic situation like that(the video)at ALL! I don't care for driving under any stressful conditions--which means city driving, major highways, etcetera--and usually stay away if I can.
So...boringly, I find traffic lights essential(although like you, I hate when I keep getting the red ones.).
That clip was hilarious!! I cannot believe that they don't all just get into one big disastrous accident. I adore your picture of the enormous traffic light. I fear I would not even know which one was for me.
I really enjoyed your last post about old memorabilia. I often run across things from past events or memories, and I have to stop and reread them. Or touch, feel, and even smell them.
So funny you mention this - I totally hit the green wave on my way home from the train station this evening! I was soo happy.
I hate my morning drive to work. As soon as I get on the freeway, the traffic slows to a crawl. It takes me 30 minutes some days to go the same distance that 6 minutes would take me during a non-rush hour time period. It takes 35 minutes to get to my office...but I'm always trying to manage the drive in 25 minutes because I'm almost always running late. Bad me!
I hate traffic! When I lived in TX I always dealt with heavy traffic. Two hours to get to work...two hours to get home. Now, I deal with no traffic since I live in a very small town with a population of like 15,000!
xoxo, Shelly
=Tom,
sounds like your intersections are a bit scary.;)
I wonder if it was difficult to get used to drive on the right side for you.;)
=Hilary,
yes, they did speed it up a bit.;)) I was laughing too when watching the clip, I would for sure get paralyzed if I was in an intersection such as this. I remember driving with some friends into Paris once, and we got stuck driving in circles around The Arc de Triomphe, as it was close to impossible to turn off it due to the (unmarked)5 lane traffic.;))
=Tereza,
good luck with your driving practice today.;)) And thank you for the tag, I love tags.;)
Preju krasnej den.;))
=Lulda,
no, the traffic light is some sort of extreme joke, in Denmark this would never pass for a traffic light, the laws are much too strict.;))
Yes, I do know what you mean, I too used to commute in my youth for hours, so I can live with 25 minutes no problem.;))
=Diane,
that was very funny! It must have been hilarious to hear a 3 year old state such a thing! My mother used to write down all the funny things we said as kids, she had pages and pages.;)
=Tina,
I too am a very cautious driver and I can not imagine driving long hauls. I rather take the train and let others do the job for me.;) Although when I was young I drove all around the US, in a really old car as well.;) Funny how now I would not dare.
=Holly,
yes I found the picture very funny as well.;)
The clip was shown on the television here on one of the morning shows and I simply loved it:;)
Glad you liked the post about my old possessions. I too understand how it can touch all our senses when we look through items long forgotten by time.;)
=Hazel,
glad you had a green wave all the way home! It was a while ago I hit one of those.;))
=steviewren,
I think that is a common problem, we all run late. I do too, even f I have no set time, I still try to follow my own rules. Somehow it is so difficult to leave the house on time in the mornings, right?;))
=Shelly,
it must so relaxing to live in a small community. I sometimes hate the stress that one experiences in a large city.;))
Thank you for stopping by.;))
OK, so it is obvious that the clip has been speeded up, but anyway, it really is maaad traffic. Do these people have a death wish? Unbelievable!
It's a family joke that red lights ALWAYS catch my husband up. I breeze through on green, but he always gets caught, poor thing.
=swenglishexpat,
my thoughts exactly; how can they make this work is beyond me, to be honest. They probably just live in a completely different way.;)
=Rosezilla,
I think I am like your husband, I almost always seem to be caught be red as well:;))) Maybe we are just in a rush and that is life telling us to slow down.;)))
I was laughing really hard with the crazy intersection clip. Where is that?! I guess it's some place in India, may be. That's so scary and without a traffic light!
Here in the Manila, heavy traffic is very common and lot's of reckless drivers too! That's one reason I don't want to learn how to drive here. hehe :)
=Noelle,
yes, my guess would be India too.;)) Amazing, one has to almost be impressed how they managed to keep the heavy traffic flowing.;)
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