Today, before I even had my first cup of coffee, I discovered the bane of my existence…and it's twin.
Bane #1, thy name is Highway 37! More specifically, that stretch of the Mare Island Bridge right before the poorly planned out merge from 2 normal highway lanes into one lane of pure pain. Bane #1, you are entirely too isolated and temperamental for my taste, and yet circumstances beyond my control (i.e. the job that pays me) require your near daily use. You may believe that you were getting ahead in the world when you had all that "work" done a few years ago, but don't flatter yourself. We're all just using you for our own purposes. And as soon as we all get those flying cars that Back to the Future II promised us, no one will think twice about you anymore.
Bane #2, thy name is Infineon Raceway! (Disclaimer – the bane itself is the intersection at Highway 37 and Highway 121 – Infineon Raceway, which I still refer to as Sears Point , tends to be the cause of most of the traffic at that intersection.) You take 2nd place, because you only exert your power once in a while and usually limit it to race weekends (NASCAR, how I loathe you...). I should know better than to become complacent though, because you have a way of knowing just when to strike. Like this morning, when you and your evil(er) twin decided to join forces. Sure, the papers and traffic alerts all said it was an auto accident that caused that poor driver to go off the edge into the water, but I know it was your evil plan. How else can you explain the frustration that made those other drivers drive backwards down the side of the highway and continue backing down the one-way on-ramp? Or the panic that made certain other drivers turn off and drive in the wrong direction down that same on-ramp, risking traffic violations? (I'm sure they knew the cops would never get through the traffic to catch them.)
Ahh...I feel a little bit better after that little rant. But really, I sat in traffic so long this morning that people got out of their cars and were walking around. And after all that, all I could find on the news was that there had been an accident by highway 121 this morning, and that a car went into the water (this was reported, but not confirmed). For those non-locals that might be reading this, this particular stretch of the highway is simply a narrow 2-lane strip of pavement surrounded on both sides by water (in the winter - in the summer it's marshy stinky mud flats). The two banes of my existence mentioned above are at each end of this stretch where it rejoins a normal land mass.
Everyone out there - be happy this is not your morning commute! (Unless you commute over the Golden Gate Bridge each morning, in which case, this might actually be cake for you.)
4 comments:
That was the most fun I ever had reading about traffic! =)
Ah yes - how well I remember driving that stretch of highway every day. Of course we had a few more challenges back then. We had to make our way through Vallejo on surface streets through 3 sets of traffic lights (nicely timed so you would catch every red light). And I LOVED the A-holes who would get stuck in the middle of the intersection and block those of us who patiently waited for the light to change - only to see it cycle back to red again. As bad as you think it is now - it used to be worse - MUCH worse.
I know that stretch of road well. I was last there on a Saturday afternoon this summer. I wanted to cry.
Thanks Jill!
Dad - don't forget, I too drove the same road before they built the bypass over the surface streets. I usually take the shortcut now anyway, past the ferry building, just to avoid as much of I-80 and the anticipated backup as possible.
Kailyn - It will definitely do that to you. Evil in concrete.
Post a Comment