The Commute vs. The Commuters
Each day I have an 80 min commute from my house to my cube, and it's not bad. Don't get me wrong, I can remember walking to my office in Grad School in 5 mins - but given that I work in Downtown Chicago and would not want to live within 5 mins of where I work, it's a decent compromise.
Each day I have an 80 min commute from my cube to my house, and it's horrible. It's the same streets, the same train, the same car, the same roads - but different people, and as Robert Frost might have said that has made all the difference.
It's the commuters in the evening that make the trip nasty. In the morning, it's early - and I mean really early, yet most everyone takes their turn, waits in line, doesn't push, and we all get on the train quickly and get to work. In the evening it's pushing and shoving... angry faces... loud talkers on the train - and then we get to the traffic.
In the morning, I almost have the road to myself. Nice and quick, no problems. But in the evening it's a traffic jam from the word go. First, it's all the people that think a Stop Sign is really a way to get the jump on honest saps. They fly right through 4-way stops like the know the rest of us are going to stop. Then there are the busses... at one specific intersection near the train station one bus will play blocker for as many busses that don't have the right-of-way as necessary. I've repeatedly watched one Pace block the road for eight other of it's ilk - and then not allow one car to go after the last bus. It's like a little club - Here you go, my buddies... all of you can go - but not you, car!. It's something that I know they aren't going to change... they don't care. But if the drivers of the busses were in their cars, they would not do the same thing - Oh, I like these Jeeps, they can go - but not you Fords!
The problem is that people seem to think that they are special. They deserve to get home 30 sec. faster than the rest of us. We must not have any place to go, which is why they don't feel bad about cutting you off, sitting in the middle of an intersection, and in general doing such poor driving they'd never get a license if it depended on their daily driving habits.
I know this is just ranting... aggressive drivers in Naperville are nothing in comparison to Detroit or Downtown Chicago, but it's funny that these same people don't see themselves as being aggressive on the road. They probably think of themselves as nice, kind, caring - even sharing, people. But don't you believe it. They're not that far removed from the lower species.