Traction

I really like cars. I really like some trucks, even. I love the artistry and engineering aptitude that goes into making (some of) them.

I hate, however, the way they are overused.

Indeed, I am a contributor to this problem, largely due to a lack of other options. I have made my contributions to the daily rush-hour mess, and I have not felt good about it. Commuting to work is a real issue, and one that I do not take lightly. I have been able to abate that feeling of guilt significantly of late, but I have to jump through a series of seemingly arbitrary hoops in order to create my current peace of mind.

The highway is alternatively boring and stressful. When it is boring, it can be interminable. When it is stressful, it can be vein-popping. The insular mindset that prevails there is singularly maddening, made ever more so because one cannot simply ignore the other drivers on the road. No, you must actively engage them, lest you move slightly too ponderously and a hick with red white and blue plastered all over his truck thunders past with his Finger held high.

So we abide, and some of us try to game the system. We value our freedom of movement so much that we are willing to trade away hours every day so that we can drive ourselves home on our own schedule. Our lives morph into a series of distinct elements, punctuated by these solitary drives. We gain nothing significant from them, and often are so exhausted after a particularly bad trip that our whole night ends up in shambles.

Perhaps I am reading too much into it. After all, we don't have much choice in the matter. As referenced by my previous post on TCRT, it is clear that our city has very few mass transit options available to us. The bus comes and goes very rarely from St Paul to Eagan, so I have three chances in the morning to bike down into St Paul, catch it on the way out, and three chances in the afternoon to come back. Much better would be a rail system that goes out to the major suburbs, Eagan included, and let me catch a bus out to Thomson from there.

I guess I shouldn't complain. Instead of concentrating on driving to avoid assholes, I now have 35 minutes each way to sit and relax, sleep, draw, or read (the chairs on the express busses are quite comfortable). I also should be able to get in better shape now that I am biking from the river up into the bluffs every afternoon. Maybe within my lifetime we'll have some kind of a serious transit infrastructure, because this whole freeway commute business could drive me nuts after a very short time.

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