Another year has come and gone, and as usual when school starts, the daily commute becomes a living hell again. On a personal note, my trip from home to work normally takes a half-hour, but starting this week, it’s at least twice that long.
And while I’m sitting there doing nothing, miserly inching forward, I can’t help asking myself why the number of cars on the road rises so dramatically once the school bell rings.
I can understand a certain level of congestion in school zones in the morning, but on the highway?
In the greater Montreal area, the traffic will be this way until about late November before it starts improving. At that time, either people will have become accustomed to their daily commute (remember, many of us move on July 1st in Quebec), or a bunch of college and university students drop out and clear the roadways. Actually, I have no clue.
What I do know is that in La Belle Province, road work in summer is as common as poutine, and many construction sites are still active, including one on my way to work that’s been in operation for what seems like forever, reducing lane width and posting reduced speed limits. I won’t start on the road work required to keep our bridges from crumbling apart.
And then, as I come to one unusually congested portion of my commute, I discover that there is not one, but two stalled cars blocking a lane, including one that threw up its engine coolant all over the tarmac. And here’s part the problem: no one can ignore the fact that traffic jams are inevitable when school starts, yet many motorists don’t prep their vehicle for it.
Overheating engines, stalls, name it – that $300 repair they’ve been holding off just caused a lane closure, costing thousands and thousands of dollars in lost productivity, as people get to work late, exhausted by their commute and not focused on the job at hand.
Come on, people; the daily commute is tough enough as it is, with a bunch of factors that are out of our control. Please make sure your car or truck is well-maintained so you don’t hold up the traffic.
And while I’m sitting there doing nothing, miserly inching forward, I can’t help asking myself why the number of cars on the road rises so dramatically once the school bell rings.
I can understand a certain level of congestion in school zones in the morning, but on the highway?
In the greater Montreal area, the traffic will be this way until about late November before it starts improving. At that time, either people will have become accustomed to their daily commute (remember, many of us move on July 1st in Quebec), or a bunch of college and university students drop out and clear the roadways. Actually, I have no clue.
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What I do know is that in La Belle Province, road work in summer is as common as poutine, and many construction sites are still active, including one on my way to work that’s been in operation for what seems like forever, reducing lane width and posting reduced speed limits. I won’t start on the road work required to keep our bridges from crumbling apart.
And then, as I come to one unusually congested portion of my commute, I discover that there is not one, but two stalled cars blocking a lane, including one that threw up its engine coolant all over the tarmac. And here’s part the problem: no one can ignore the fact that traffic jams are inevitable when school starts, yet many motorists don’t prep their vehicle for it.
Overheating engines, stalls, name it – that $300 repair they’ve been holding off just caused a lane closure, costing thousands and thousands of dollars in lost productivity, as people get to work late, exhausted by their commute and not focused on the job at hand.
Come on, people; the daily commute is tough enough as it is, with a bunch of factors that are out of our control. Please make sure your car or truck is well-maintained so you don’t hold up the traffic.