Commuting to Work Can Be a Pain

Commuting to work is usually not a problem for some people. However, for other people, commuting to work can be a real pain and can ultimately ruin what would have been otherwise a bright, chipper start to their day.

I work from home, but when I used to commute to work, it was almost always a nightmare. The only times when I wouldn’t hit traffic was when I would leave super early in the morning to get to the office by 7 a.m. However, now that I don’t have to go to work, I have still seen the wrath of the morning commute when I go for runs or when I run out to complete errands. Miles and miles of traffic backed up on the highway is not an unusual sight to see when you are on the road. Things only feel worse when you know that you have to be somewhere at a certain time and you can’t get there because of traffic.

Recently, I had a doctor’s appointment. Because I had just moved into a new apartment, I was unsure of what time to leave in order to avoid traffic. I totally miscalculated the time that I should have left. Because there was construction going on right outside of my apartment complex, and because the road right outside of my apartment complex was sort of a major through way for morning commuters (which at the time, I did not know but I know now), it was backed up. In fact, it was so incredibly backed up, that I couldn’t even get out of my apartment complex! I wound up exiting my apartment complex via the second entrance in the back.

Things were going well for about a minute until I hit the other part of the morning rush hour traffic. Geez! I couldn’t even catch a break. I finally managed to make my way through most of the morning rush hour traffic and was approximately five minutes away from the doctor’s office when they called to tell me that I was running too late. The next appointment had already arrived, and they were going to have to cancel my appointment. Frustrated and angry, I conceded. I had spent almost an hour sitting in rush hour traffic for an appointment that normally would have taken me ten to fifteen minutes to get to. Needless to say, I was going to make sure that all of my future appointments for anything were going to be scheduled during non-rush hour times.

Commuting is not just a problem during designated rush hour times, though. In fact, because of the huge population boom in the Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill area, I have found that traffic starting to become just as bad at any time of the day (save for between midnight and 3 a.m.). The most that we can do as drivers during this time is just be patient, take deep breaths, and most of all: make sure that we leave ourselves plenty of time to get to wherever it is we’re going!


TOP