Have you ever been coming home from a long day of work, and you run into a traffic jam?
Some people who live in L.A. and Atlanta might read that and tell me I’m asking the wrong question. The question for them is when are they not in a traffic jam?
But I’m not talking about the normal, everyday traffic jam. The kind that you’re used to experiencing. I’m talking about a delay above the usual.
Maybe it’s not even right after work but it’s late at night and they’re working construction and an accident happened right next to it so they stop all traffic completely on the Southbound route of I35 just North of Austin, TX and you’re waiting for 30 minutes in one spot….
Not that that’s specific or anything but that might be where I am right now, trying to make the best use of time.
What’s interesting to me is how quickly people become problem solvers in situations like this.
Just behind my car, there is a steep grassy median that divides where I am with the frontage road that runs parallel with I35. Everyone remained stationary in our spots, for no more than a minute before the first car (a truck) turned their wheels to the right and ventured down the grassy hill to the frontage road.
He made it. A couple of seconds later, another car, smaller this time, drove down the slope and joined the frontage road.
This was all it took.
Instantly, almost everyone began turning their wheels to the right and aiming their car towards the grassy bank.
Literally, hundreds of cars were flooding the frontage road after two brave souls took the plunge and decided waiting was not the best way to solve this problem.
There were the few cars that took it upon themselves to be the “upright citizen police” and tried to block cars who were trying to get off the road.
It was unfortunate for me because by the time the first truck took the journey over the median, I was already past where the grassy part is and there was now a metal railing between the frontage road and where I was.
I wanted to join in so badly but was blocked by even more severe barriers.
What was interesting to me was how quickly people seemed to solve a problem and run with it in this situation but how slowly it’s taking people to understand the problem with colleges. How long it’s taking for people to say, “Hey, this might not be the best way, let’s go over here instead.”
What’s interesting about it is that the first car has already gone over the median. The first fifty cars have gone over the median, yet everyone is still afraid of some larger power. Like they shouldn’t go over because that’s just not what people do.
If we’ve seen that it works, that it’s creating a more efficient route, why are more people not taking it?
It’s like those cars that were trying to block everyone in are so powerful that no one even looks up at the possibility of another way. They just keep sitting in the line that’s not moving.
Do you wish the highway could be better and have less problems?
Of course.
But it does have those problems. The question is, are you going to keep sitting in that line, not knowing when they’re going to clean up their game, or are you going to take the offroad route? The route that can start moving you toward your destination today.
The alternative routes are there, it’s now just a question of are you going to take the opportunity while you can? Soon, you’ll be past the part with the grass and you won’t be able to turn off-road again.
What’s the bigger risk? Staying on the conveyor belt or getting off?