Post-Labor Day Congestion and a solution

Now that vacation season is over everyone is back at work, congestion is worse than ever. It takes me 15 minutes to go a measely 5 miles because the four-lane divided road was not designed for such high volume. Each traffic light causes a backup.

When people vacationed this summer, volume was down by 20 percent, and congestion minimized. On Fridays, I flew into work, so people were either working from home or not working.

We can maintain that fast-track to work if everyone carpooled, bike, took the bus or worked from home just ONE DAY per week. Merely reducing the volume of traffic on the road by 20 or 25 percent eases congestion, not to mention the impact on air quality because of fewer vehicles and less idling.

We are like car-zombies. We have structured our whole lives around driving alone in a customized vehicle that reflects our status [fact, fiction or sacrifice], income, identity [minivan or motorcycle] pizazz, or functionality.

We don't think about this behavior any more. We put our children in battery-operated "cute" vehicles so they can hold their sippy cups while they are propelled along and can grow their own spare tire around the middle as soon as possible.

What will it take for us to wake up? $4/gallon gas was like waking up in a nightmare at 4 am. Unfortunately, we have to suffer to motivate us to change.