Traffic

Since I got home I have driven on the wrong side of the road (once), gone to get into the wrong side of the car (a few times), wondered which way to go round a roundabout and panicked when I thought someone was on the side of the junction that I was supposed to turn into (once each). Not bad considering I really can’t tell the difference between left and right and no accidents have resulted.

In America, they could not make driving easier for you if they tried. There are parking spaces everywhere, and generally they’re free. Traffic jams don’t really happen (although having said that coming home from Asheville there was usually traffic at the most odd times along I-40, usually Friday late night, or Sunday afternoon. I never did find out the purpose of all that construction work either. I always feel better when I know the reason). And then of course there’s the price of petrol.

I hate traffic. I hate sitting my day away in a line of cars that is going nowhere fast. I hate that they are working on the Westlink and that even on a Saturday afternoon you can’t go near the road for fear that you’ll be trapped in highway hell for the next forty five minutes to go two miles. But most of all I hate that I cannot park outside my office without parking on double yellow lines, whilst living in constant fear that a traffic warden might come and give me a ticket. Parking in south Belfast is a ruddy nightmare!


The Westlink links…um the West (of Belfast and indeed Northern Ireland). It joins two motorways (interstates) and saves you having to go into Belfast to get to the other side of it. It was built with limited foresight however, two lanes were never enough even back in the day and gridlock generally results. They are working to make it three lanes and have flyovers. I can’t believe it’s really going to help that much and while they work on it it’s traffic death.

I am actually surprised by how much we are willing to take here. Why should the traffic be so bad all the time? Why should we have to get up at the crack of dawn to avoid it and get a parking space? Why should the price of petrol be so expensive? ($6.35 a gallon)

I know it’s just the way it is and sure there’s the whole global warming thing (which according to my hairdresser in Hicksville doesn’t exist – it’s a forty year cycle to Prof. Snippy Snips whose science took him as far as colouring hair. I’m no scientist either but surely there comes a point where you just have to listen to people who actually study this kind of thing) but it doesn’t take away from making your life just that little bit harder and that sucks.

I know I’m not the only one who feels like this either. Otherwise, why when you go through turning-to-red-traffic-lights when you really shouldn’t have, do the three cars behind you go too?