Commuting

I've done an effective job at avoiding rush-hour commutes; or commutes at all, for that matter. In fact, it was only last week that I first went through one of those signal lights at the end of a freeway on-ramp while it was running.

I started a new job last Monday and they're located in the building next door to the building in which I worked in 2000. I can't help but be a little nostalgic every time I drive in to the office. It's weird.

Anyway, so, back to the topic of commuting. I hate wasting time sitting in traffic, so I have a 2am (wake up) - 3pm (leave work) schedule that allows me to avoid the worst of it. And I wonder what traffic would be like if I could be the driver of every car. I noticed long ago that drivers like to "clump together" (analogies include lobotomized pack animals and cholesterol in arteries) and they settle down to the speed of the slowest member of their respective clump. And similarly awful is the practice of changing lanes simply to not have another car right in front of you ... thereby blocking that lane should someone want to pass you. So, if these poor driving habits could be eradicated, would we even have a "rush hour"?

If I had the time to spend figuring out what the properties of a driver are, and even more time to code something up, I might find my answer. Until then, I'm resigned to assuming that all traffic problems would cease.