Brake.  Gas.  Brake.  Gas.  Brake.  Brake.  Brake.

What it looks like. photo credit: enterstageright.com

The morning commute sucks, even at 9:30.  You would have expected it to be a little clearer, but I guess enough people go to work later that it doesn’t even matter anymore.  Panda has mentioned a few times that he wants to live near work so he only has a 5-minute commute (much like mine to Opportunity Green when I’m at his place).  I completely understand.  The problem will be working close enough to each other that we can find a place that isn’t too far from either.  For I certainly don’t want to have to wake up in the morning only to drive an hour and a half to start working.  It’s exhausting and the complete wrong way to start the day.  I’m amazed that so many people do it.

I hate to get up in the morning as it is.  When you put a morning commute as miserable as they get in LA, that’s just about the worst way anyone could start their day.  I can’t imagine something more stressful and draining, both physically and mentally.  And for those who experience road rage and get extremely anxious when they are running late, it’s emotionally taxing as well.  If only everyone could just work from home and cut the commute, be close enough to just walk on over, or had public transportation that easily transported people.  Maybe cities should be planned in such as way as to ease this sort of congestion.  I’m not sure that would be enough though, what the complexity of the problem.  Perhaps businesses and residences should intermingle more evenly to spread out the flow of traffic in all directions instead of one main one.  It just doesn’t make sense to have hordes of people heading into a central business district each morning and rushing out each evening.  Is there really any real benefit to having business hubs?

What it feels like. photo credit: Curtis Gregory Perry on flickr

It might be that the problem would not be solved with a different distribution of businesses, but rather needs to be tackled via transportation solutions.  I know I sure wish I had someone to drive with so I could take advantage of the carpool lane and probably shave a good 20-30 minutes off of my 90-minute drive.  Even better would be a mass transportation system that runs at that time.  The only way I can get from my valley down to more central LA via public transportation is a commuter bus that only runs in the early morning.  This city is in desperate need of a mass transit makeover.  Buses, trains, subways, monorails, whatever.  A city so spread out shouldn’t leave its people with so few options to get around.

Let’s end the concept of rush hour.  It’ll make the atmosphere cleaner and the people happier.