TAXIIIIII

I give up on driving. In my ideal world, there would be no cars. It would involve travel by horse, bicycles, boat, legs, or even a little Jetson's bubble in the sky. That's just how it should be. I hate driving. Not only is it frustrating, it's so expensive (you know, insurance, gas, oil changes, tires, car washes, stuff that needs repair, Yankee Candle car jars)...and I get lost way too often. Or maybe I'll just take a taxi everywhere. That's cheap, right? I feel like people only do that in New York. Maybe it's time to move to New York. What, is that not a good reason?

But honestly who really does that? Take taxis everywhere. I think it's just the movies, I really don't see how people ride miles and miles in a taxi, from state to state or even down the block. What kind of salary do these people have? It seems to always be people who work at Starbucks or something too; totally not realistic.

Taxis and New York and movies aside, if you read the article below, you'll get even more why I hate driving. No seriously, you need to read the article to reference what I'm going to talk about. It's not long and will devastatingly capture your attention.

http://www.independentmail.com/news/2011/jul/30/authorities-responding-fatal-accident-interstate-8/

I witnessed this on my way to Atlanta on Saturday. I didn't actually see it happen, or I think I might've peed my pants or have been having nightmares the past couple nights. We were in the aftermath of being completely stopped on the highway. Talk about a traffic jam. Although, after we saw the accident, we really had no room to complain anymore. While we were impatient (Are we there yet?) and tired and annoyed, we only lost an hour and a half of our day. Some of the people lost 7 hours, 12 hours, of their days...ran out of gas on the side of the road, had no food, cars got overheated, people got over heated, you name it, it happened. I-85 is not the best interstate for this to happen on. I mean it's a pretty big deal. Like one of the most ballin interstates in the SE, right?? Obviously I don't know much about navigating...95 is a big deal I'm sure, but to me 85 is also. For traffic to be completely stopped on one side for a couple hours, and 7 hours on the other side, only to then move at a snails pace for 5 hours, I would've probably flipped my lid. I mean, put on your seatbelts, I think we maxed out at 10 mph one time.

It was a very interesting time...people parked their cars and were running down the highway in khakis and flip flops (jogging, shirts tied around heads, and what not...probably just to do SOMETHING besides sit still), we saw a car driving backwards on the wrong side of the road, we saw a policeman standing in the middle of 4 lanes of interstate traffic (I'm not so sure this is smart). You get the idea...


And while our 4 hour drive quickly (or not so quickly) turned into a 6 hour drive, we still only lost an hour and a half. Some people lost their lives.

Not only do I hate the expenses and frustration of driving, it's flat out scary. I mean holy bananas (reference the news story here) not only do you have to pay attention to cars, trucks, motorcycles on your own side of the road, now you have to operate on automatic defensive driving for the cars, trucks, and motorcycles on the OTHER side of the median. Situational Awareness. It really kind of hit us (no pun intended) because it could have been any of us, it could have been so much worse, and it could've been someone we know. It's sad because they have families, because they didn't know their lives would end on Saturday, and the one man with the boat was 5 miles from his day of fishing. FIVE MILES. I just can't imagine.

Personally, I think tractor trailors should have their own road system. I've thought this for years and years and years. And I think tax payers would totally go for paying for this. No?

Now I'm much more aware, and maybe now I'm not so frustrated getting stuck behind a semi driving a little slower than I want him to, and now I also find myself speeding up just a little bit to get past them if I find one right beside me. This morning I actually considered walking the 30 miles to work...well, not really, but I definitely noticed EVERY truck I drove by, in front of, or behind. Even the ones on the other side of the road.