Ahem.
So, my usual route to work is under construction. Rather than a 5 lane road at 45mph, it's now a 2-3 lane road at 30mph. Which some days means 20, depending on the panicked driver in the front of the commuting pack. Once you get past THAT construction zone, you run into a whack of traffic, because the other route to work is CLOSED so they've been detoured to my route.
Okay, fine. Back-up route! Half a mile up the road from my turn, it drops to one lane. As a result, the back-up is over a mile long. Thus, despite the fact that I only need to get into the right lane and make an immediate turn, I can't. Because everyone else is lining up for the left lane, because somewhere after my turn, it loses a lane. FINE STUPID CITY FINE.
Back-up route that I haaaaaaaaaaate. It just sucks. The end. You have a two lane left turn on to the road, but the right lane of the left turn is the lane people are supposed to use to get on the highway. Yeah, right. Lots of cars in the left lane try to cut right to get on the highway. Plus there are 4 traffic lights in under half a mile. Three of them are in a quarter mile. Then you race and jockey for position for the one lane that bears right, that splits back in to two lanes with varying speeds that no one actually knows.
ANYWAY. TODAY'S COMMUTE.
My husband had said that the back-up route was just fine. I opted to trust him, because why not? Worst case, I end up on the route that I hate, but past the part that I really really really hate. Except... I got behind a car doing 20mph in a 45mph zone. It was raining. For some reason, this panics people in this town. I opted to NOT tailgate her because, uh, what's the point? I'm not sure if she was inept or decided that I was being mean to her. I put my left turn signal on, pulled into the turn lane and... she cut me off. The light was green. She STOPPED, until the light turned yellow and then turned. I opted to follow her through the light at that point.
We got to within 15 cars of the traffic light to make it to the road with the one lane half a mile from my turn... and watched one car go through the cycle of the light. FINE. LEFT TURN and on to back-up route. For some reason, a bus stopped to let a car turn LEFT so all the other traffic stopped, too, which meant no one could figure out how to accelerate again for the spot where you race and then jockey for position. Fine, screwed, whatever, I'll just get in line and get to work when I get to... bus what ARE YOU DOING NOW? I go around the bus. And I'm FREE. FREE I TELL YOU FREE.
(Mind, I'm still in a left lane, there are no turn lanes, so there are some slow downs for cars turning. That's not so big a deal. It was the Mercedes SUV driver who was COMPLETELY PANICKED about driving on this road in the lane next to me. When I had to slow/stop for the left turn cars, SHE DID TOO. FOR REAL?)
Then, insult on injury, but as I turned and I could see the parking garage? A dude was in the road, at a construction site, with a STOP sign. I almost cried. But when the light turned green, he turned the sign to slow, and I was able to advance. I lost nothing, at that point.
EXCEPT MY TEMPER OH GOD I HATE COMMUTING.
