I’ve been pretty fortunate over the years when it comes to commuting to work.
I learned to drive in the late 60s when I lived just outside of Houston, Texas. Some of the driver education training included driving in traffic on one of the area freeways. I was comfortable driving in urban traffic.
Very little of my commuting to work has been in that kind of traffic. I’ve never really had to deal with heavy traffic or traffic jams regularly.
When I was in the Navy, moving off base meant riding a commuter train between Waukegan, Illinois and Great Lakes Naval Training Center to go to and from school. For my nuclear operational training, there was a fleet of yellow buses that took students and others out to the Naval Reactors Facility over an hour away in the Idaho desert.
Most of my commuting time, though, has been by automobile, with the drive ranging from about 20 to 30 minutes.
Traffic congestion during my commutes has almost never been a problem. The worst was during outages at the nuclear plant, when getting to and from work takes longer during the periods when the shifts are changing due the longer hours and increased staffing.
I normally go to the gym after most folks are already at work. Traffic is normally very light. When I headed in today at about 7:30, traffic was noticeably heavier.
After my first half-day of work, I left at about normal quitting time and ran into some congestion, with traffic backed up from where vehicles leaving the plant turn onto the main highway. My commute home was lengthened by about 5 minutes from what I remember from the past.
Honestly, I really am thankful for the low stress commutes that I have had for most of my working life.
What has been your commuting experience been? (or your spouse’s if you worked in the home?)
Today, among other things, I filled out U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification.
