DC Drives....

[smittenbyu]

A long long time ago, after a visit to Hyderabad I had observed how they needed a traffic policeman/woman standing under the working traffic light to direct traffic flow. I had never seen that anywhere else until now. The nation's capital needs such traffic police during rush hours. You will find frustrated traffic cops standing at the middle of the intersection directing traffic as the light turns red/green. One might think how effective can they be? Oh one look (glare, really) from the traffic cop will bring any bus, car, bike to a dead stop. You don't mess with the cops here! ;)

Which also brings back to the frustration that the drivers in DC are just plain rude and impatient. So many cars honk. Often times unnecessarily. As the car awaits for the pedestrian to cross before they turn right while the light is green for the pedestrian, the car behind (usually a cab driver) will honk at the car!! grrr... There are different types of drivers in DC leading up to the reason for the horrendous driving:

• First group are the DC-ers who have put themselves on a pedestal and self-proclaimed important people and own the road. After all the residents are taxed without much representation in Congress. Humility is not seen as a virtue in this city. And their driving is reflected in this attitude.


• Then there are those who just are tired of the whole city coming to a standstill when the President wants to go grab a burger at Five Guys or some Chili at the famous Ben's Chili Bowl. Although, I doubt he goes on these trips as often as people think he does (after all that Chili run was back in Jan and the burger was back in May). But usually that's the first reason people think of when there's a traffic jam.


• Then there are the tourists who get lost in the maze of one-ways in the city and are terrified of getting lost in the city's "ghettos". DC has just recently come out of their reputation of having the most number of crimes in the country.


• Then there are the locals who are annoyed at the tourists navigating the roads and the pedestrians who think the light is forever-green for them to cross at whatever and whichever intersection.


• Then there are the drivers who get stuck behind a car cruising at walking speed looking for parking!

These are just some of the reasons N & I don't drive into DC. We even advice our visiting friends not to. But many just ignore our advice and usually remark something to the effect of "we have driven in India, this is no big deal" or "we are in the US it can never get that bad except for maybe NYC and LA" kind of talk. Afterall DC is not that big. No, it's not that big but we do get a ton of visitors every day! Ah well, they learn the hard way!

And these days the Metro has been no better. On Saturday I spent nearly 3.5 hours of the day time on the metro commuting! It should have been an hour and half total for the commute, even on a weekend! sigh....

Comments

[inspirethoughts.livejournal.com]

I saw cops handling traffic during rush hour in both MKE and CHI downtowns...it was surprising at first, but I guess even here we need manual help sometimes.

LOL! honking is so common in CHI downtown...gosh...it drove me crazy.

[smittenbyu]

heheh guess this write up could apply to pretty much any city these days! :S