I live on an acreage out of the city, it takes me on average about thirty minutes to get to the edge of the city, then whatever shopping I need to do gets done as I drive from place to place before I go home.
Yesterday I had to work in the city in the University of Alberta area it took about an hour for me to get to my job site. I worked all day and finished the job at around four o'clock before I started to make my way home.
The city is an absolute nightmare at this time, and I can see how road rage would definitely become a thing when dealing with the other drivers who are also trying to make their way home. Something needs to change with the way we drive through the city, people that have to deal with this insanity every day, can not be right in the mind.
Construction is a huge issue, forcing a roadway that used to be four lanes down to two lanes really slows down the commute, add in some of the most ignorant drivers into the mix and you have a recipe for disaster, people force their way into your lane after trying to speed past everyone on the merge lane before it ends.
Take away the construction and you are still left with the ignorant drivers who don't pay attention. There was a bus that was clearly broken down in the lane opposite to mine and you could see it from a long way away, yet I had a driver right beside me that didn't slow down or speed up to get past or behind me into my lane, but instead stayed in that lane until the last possible second before they merged into my lane without looking, almost forcing me off the road as I slammed on my brakes and swerved toward the ditch. I honestly believe that if had hit them and been stopped, that I would be in jail for murder, because I would have killed them I was so angry.
It took me two miserable hours to get home, two miserable hours of getting more and more stressed out at every minute, twice as long as it took me to get there in the first place. I am no longer surprised to hear about a disgruntled worker on a shooting spree, I only wonder why there aren't more of them after dealing with the nightmare of driving in the city at rush hour. If we could eliminate just one thing in our lives that would make it better, I would have to say we could all eliminate A Long Painful Drive.
Scott Goerz
