Rush Hour

One of the great frustrations that comes with living in the Washington, D.C.- Northern Virginia region is the traffic. It is hard to find any time of day when traffic is not a challenge. When running errands or traveling from one appointment to another, traffic is a factor that must be weighed, particularly if time is a factor.  (For instance, I had a dentist appointment this morning. Normally, it is a 15-minute drive from our house to the dentist office. But with traffic as a factor, that 15 minutes is at least 30 minutes on the road.) Such is life in this part of the country as well as other heavily-congested regions, too.

Driving to that appointment this morning and watching other drivers jockey for position on the road as they navigated other drivers, stop lights, right and left turns, etc., I was struck not by the inconvenience of rush hour traffic but how, in many ways, it brings out the best in many people. (I just re-read that last sentence and, yes, I do know how insane that sounds.) When it comes to driving in rush hour, commuters are very much in the same boat. For them to get to where they need to be in a reasonable amount of time requires a great deal of cooperation. They need to set aside their own specific needs and work with strangers for the greater good of helping ensure traffic runs smoothly and, ultimately, everyone benefits. 

Sure, there are accidents. Plus, without question there are some drivers that take foolish risks, jeopardizing themselves and others. Fortunately, those folks are in the minority. When one weighs their behavior against the drivers that arrive at their destinations safely and on-time, the scale tips quite heavily toward the great amount of cooperation that occurs during what anyone would consider to be a challenging time. This cooperation is the result of mutual respect and good communication between the drivers.  Those are good things no matter what road a person is on.