Commuting

I get the impression that most people view their commute to work as an opportunity to get work done, or at least use the time somehow to "increase their productivity". A lot of folks are talking on their cell phones, playing with their navigation or whatever else you can put in a car. I think most of the folks I encounter during my morning commute are working on catching a few extra minutes of shut eye before they have to start work.

To me, driving is an experience to be enjoyed, and I think a lot of people have lost sight of that. The past 20 years have introduced a lot of boring, safe cars (think Taurus, Camry, Accord) and also a lot of new, neat gadgets, like cellphones, GPS, and satellite radio. I see these cars every day, like a bunch of ants, not really controlled by the individual ant, but controlled by society. I'm guessing that most of those people would rather not be commuting (since they're doing something else while in the car), but they do it because that's what the group says that they should do.

I tried using cruise control again this past week. I've used it off and on, but I find that its harder to focus on driving if you don't have to have your foot on the gas. It was pretty much miserable just as I expected. I found myself considering making faces at other commuters as they went by, or throwing up my hands as though I were completely out of control (which who knows, maybe I'm losing it). I turned it off. I realized that my car is a bit of an odd paradox. It has no carpeting in it, fiberglass shells that pass for bucket seats, requires 3 feet on the floor and has no radio. Yet it still has air conditioning, power windows and locks, and cruise control. Do you realize how much weight that is? Its got to be at least 6 pounds worth of controllers, wiring and actuators, to say nothing of the A/C condenser (and its parasitic drag on the crank).

I'm not really done commenting (I'll add a part II later), but the time has come for me to make my daily commute into work. We'll see how this one goes...