Lunch Break

Finally, a chance to post!

So, really quickly here as I eat my sandwich, I have to say that today's commute wasn't so bad. However, it did include an odd traffic slowdown that just does not make sense to me.

Normally if I hit a traffic jam there's usually a good (or at the very least acceptable) reason for it: accident, merging, end of HOV lane, etc. Not today, today after a merge where Route 50 drops from 3 lanes to 2 I found myself confused. You see, after I merged the pace of traffic started to pick up for a bit, then we went to a dead stop for NO reason. Usually when I'm held up in traffic at this point in my trip it's due to an accident, or a cop sitting on the side of the road, or a back up from where 295 drops commuters onto 50/the approach to the D.C. line. But none of this was the reason today, as by the time I hit the 295 point traffic was moving well again.

From what I can tell there just was NO reason for this random and painfully long stoppage. I would like to blame it on the weather/rain, which normally has drivers acting like panicky law students waiting in-line at Kinkos during a writing competition, but for the most part that surprisingly did not affect my commute. So I sat there on Route 50 and wasted 15 good minutes of time, causing me to get into work 5 minutes late.

You know what didn't happen when I was taking the MARC train? The arrival of my person at the office later than 8:50am. *sigh*

This morning's commute (I can't really post last night's as too many stops were made due to errands):

Start time: 7:25 am

End time: 9:05am

I'm back

Okay, so yes, I've disappeared for quite awhile due to the fact that I've been taking the MARC train to work. I've been staying with friends in Baltimore.

Now, the train really is better than driving the hour and a half to and from D.C. but there are issues with that commute. One is the fact that I hop on and off the train at Penn Station, I need to walk down Charles Street to get there. This wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the fact that UB is, and has been for MONTHS AND MONTHS AND MONTHS, constructing its new law building. The last block to the station is completely blocked off on the right side of the road, which happens to be the side the station is on - is this a pain in the ass? Hells yes it is. It has caused me a never ending panic attack of wondering if I'll be able to cross the street without getting hit, and in time to make my train. Crossing during my morning commute can be a HUGE pain in the ass and very dangerous.

At one point the traffic light on Charles at the station rarely ever turned red, and it didn't have a working cross walk (let alone a button to push to activate the crosswalk) - you can image how fun that was. At least now I can push a button to tell the light "I'm here, stop those damn cars, I have 5 minutes to catch that train!"

Today's travel time which includes walking to and from the stations...

Start Time: 7:30am
End Time: 8:45am

Yes, I've been gone but we need to talk NOW.

Okay, I know I've been gone for a while, but that's because I've been staying with friends and taking the MARC train into work A LOT.

In any case, to take a break from bitching about the time that it takes me to get into Washington, D.C. I figured I would post something more important.

The U.S. Government and its current attempt to censor the Internet. This bill currently proposed would have majorly negative effects. Please visit this link to learn more.

http://americancensorship.org/

Write your representatives NOW! Heck I have a friend studying in London who just called her local home Rep, there's no reason you can't contact yours.

Yes, a Complaint About the MARC Train

I've been spending the week in Baltimore, so no Route 50 commuting horror stories. However, I do have a MARC train grip.

Start Time: 7:30 am
End Time: 9:08 am

Time train left Baltimore: 7:45 am

Time train was SUPPOSED to get into DC station: 8:41 am

Time we actually got into the station: 8:54 am

Typically I don't have a lot to complain about when it comes to the MARC train. I get to sit and just chill for an hour instead of driving. I have no traffic to worry about, no need to be fully awake and alert, no commuting partner complaining to me about late arrival times - buuuut there are still problems.

Today for example, is the perfect example of small but decently aggravating situation. We were on time as we arrived at the station. Then as we slowed to make the approach the train came to a complete stop. We just sit there. After 5 minutes finally an announcement is made, we are waiting to be assigned a gate. Excuse me? I do believe that this train arrives around the same time every weekday, please Union Station explain to me why you weren't ready with an assigned gate? I understand that these things happen, however we proceed to sit for 10 more minutes waiting for a gate. That's right, just 15 minutes stuck on the train. There goes my ability to be early this morning.

To add to this incident we pull in behind another train. Now the gate that the train I take normally pulls into is a lower platform, so you have to walk down the steep train steps to disembark. But when you are gated behind an already parked train you are literally out at the end of the terminal. You are out in the middle of tracks on a small stretch of paved walkway that is not even close to the terminal. This make disembarking even harder. In fact usually the crew puts step stools on the ground for passengers to step onto after the step off of the train. (They didn't have many of them this morning, but lucky for me I commute in sneakers.)

Not only is the train late getting in, but I have to hike to the terminal, just to exit union station and get into work. All after waiting 15 minutes for a station to get ready to receive a train that it's used to arriving at 8:41am. Great.

At least there were free donuts and hot apple cider this morning complements of building management. That helped to put me in a better mood before I got thrown into yet another work emergency. WHOOO!

Tomorrow I will experience the wonders of Amtrak as I jet up to NYC for the day on business. We shall see how that goes...

Honest - I'm around, I PROMISE

Okay, so let me be frank. This month has been CRAZY busy with work, hence the lack of posting. As you can see I am posting SUPER early today, because I had to get in SUPER early today. So, in order to wake up my brain and shake out the cobwebs I decided to do a little bit of ranting.

Despite my lack of communication recently you can trust me when I say I've had my fair share of terrible commutes over the past couple of weeks. I've also had SOME relatively good ones, like today, which was nicer because even though there was traffic, people weren't driving like complete idiots.

Start Time: 6:23am

End Time: 8:03am

Total Time: 1 hour 40 minutes

^ Considering that I was driving slow for a good part of the trip, as I fought the urge to fall asleep at the wheel, I'd say that isn't too bad. The traffic was not super heavy, just a steady run in, if I had been more awake I think I could have made better time.

Still, this commute isn't getting any easier. It doesn't matter if I'm going into work or jet setting home - there's always traffic, traffic, and more traffic. It also still remains at least an hour and a half long without traffic ONE WAY. That's 70 terrible miles of distance that my car and I have both learned to hate with a passion.

I'm longing for the urge to move closer. And in fact I have been trying to close on a house for months now, oh the joys of a short sale. >_< My goal is to be close enough to a MARC station to take the train in everyday. Now I definitely know that taking the train into D.C. may have its own problems, but at least I don't have to worry about falling asleep and crashing into somebody. I'm patiently awaiting to see if this move will even happen.

To be honest I can't believe the amount of time that's wasted by my commute each day. I could have at least an extra three hours to nap, read, to do work, pay attention to my pet rabbit (yes I have a pet rabbit), do chores, make dinner, exercise (in the form of jogging or biking), speaking to friends on the phone, etc. That time really could be used for a lot...and yet most of it is spent in the car driving, or making sure that my commuting partner keeps us on the road since he constantly insists on taking on the phone when it's his turn to drive. Don't worry folks, he uses speaker phone and keeps his hands on the steering wheel.

The point remains that something needs to change. You know, I don't think it would be such a bad idea if just across the bay bridge they build a GIANT parking complex, and a monorail or small train system that ran into D.C. or at least to New Carrollton. Seems to me like it would get a lot of people off of the road, less congestion, less emissions from automobiles, etc. Seems like it could be a good investment, but hey, what do I know?

I'm Still Alive!

So I haven't abandoned this blog! It's just that work has been crazy and the commutes have been even worse. I just...don't understand it. One day things will be moving perfectly, the next I'm set to be 15 minutes early to work and traffic makes me 15 minutes late.

Since I spent the end of last week and the weekend in Baltimore I've been taking the MARC. I won't bore you with how nice and short the length of my commute was. However, I will mention that I'm EXTREMELY happy that my train originated out of Penn Station, because once you hit a certain point along that route there is not a single seat to be found. I'm sure if I started taking the train I'd have a whole NEW set of complaints. But still...it's not that ridiculous drive everyday. >_<

Oy Vay

Okay, a little bit late posting today, but hey I had work to do.

Overall I suppose my commute last night wasn't terrible, but it contained rather bad news. I took my car in to get looked at. Turns out that rattling sound is not due to the place knocking anything loose after they changed the oil...what we think it is confirms a theory that I've had the past few days but hoped it wasn't true. The Catalytic Converter could be going bad due to the age of the car. That's gonna cost more money. *sigh*

Oh, I also had an ass tailgate me, then tell me off as he was driving past me b/c I was apparently going to slow for him in the fast lane. I'm sorry but when I'm approaching the stretch of town where there are cops, and people to watch out for I'm not going any faster just to accommodate you. Maybe you should think about slowing down and driving less aggressively, after all we were already passing many of the ppl in the right hand lane who were going under the speed limit. Did I mention I was also slowing down because we were approaching a red light? What were you going to do buddy, blow right through it?

Last Night's Commute - I got to drive home since I was graced with sleeping on the train that morning

Start Time: 5:23

End Time: 7:35

Total time: Doesn't really count since I had to stop in to get my car looked at.

This morning, despite my extreme fatigue, the first part of the commute started out as decently pleasant. Other than the fact that once again I encountered a nasty driver on the way to work who wanted to speed past everyone, but then get mad at people who passed him when he slowed down. However, once I got past where 95 branches off of 50 traffic kicked in full force. I would have been early to work, about 20 minute early. But that just wasn't in the cards I guess.

This Morning's Commute - I also drove since I normally drive the morning part of the trip

Start Time: 7:25 am (yes, yes I know, we have a hard time getting on the road on time)

End Time: 9:05 am

Total Time: 1 hour, 40 minutes

I Could Get Used to This

So once again I was able to experience a wonderfully painless commute on the MARC train to Baltimore last night, then back to D.C. this morning. I think the worst thing that occurred was the difficulty of hauling my luggage around and the light rain that arrived in D.C. as soon as I did.

Last night - Express Train, all the way!

Start Time: 5:03 pm

End Time: 6:08 pm

Total Time: 1 hour, 5 minutes - NO TRAFFIC - All time used to leisurely find a place to sit on the train and read

This Morning -

Start Time: 7:34 am

End Time: 8:50 am

Total Time: 1 hour, 15 minutes - NO TRAFFIC - All time used to leisurely find a place to sit on the train, get luggage secured, check smart phone, and nap

Tonight I have to do the trip back to the shore again, AND stop in to get the car checked out at the place that changed its oil. After analyzing it over the weekend, the rattling noise really sounds like the guys hit the heat shield, hopefully that's all it is. *crosses fingers*

I know the "this commute wasn't that bad" posts can't be too interesting. Perhaps next time I have a great journey into and out of work I'll post about the Route 50 fight b/c a hauling truck and an SUV that I once witnessed. It was madness, the people involved had clearly lost their minds. There, now you have a teaser story to look forward to.

Not a Bad Way to Start a Monday

Okay so Friday night's commute can't really count as good or bad. I had to drive my father to Annapolis to meet up with my mother so they could leave on a weekend trip, then I jetted up to Baltimore to spend the weekend with friends. And all-in-all the actual commute times of those drives were 100% reasonable. But you better believe if I had tried to cross that Severn River Bridge and then the Bay Bridge there would have been time added on to my commute.

As it is I went to the shore on Sunday then drove back, and, well driving back with the beach traffic was terrible. What should have been a 30 minute ride just to the Bay Bridge became more like a 52 minute ride with everyone coming back from Ocean City because of Bike Week. Oh yay! SUCK! I actually stopped keeping track of how long it took because I was so frustrated with the entire ordeal.

This morning's commute also will not fit the theme of this blog as I took the MARC train from Baltimore. And enough though I've heard horror stories about the MARC train, thus far, I've had pleasant experiences with it.

Start Time: 7:30am

End Time: 8:50 am

Total Time: 1 hour, 20 minutes

Love the 5 minute bolt to the station, the 8 minute pd of which to find a seat, the 40-some minute train ride nap, and the 5 minute stroll to work. Wish that could be my commute everyday. *sigh*

It's Just One More Thing to Worry About

And once again I have lovely horrid things to post about my commute out of and into D.C. Oh Joy!

Last night I had to basically drag my commuting partner out of work just to get to the scheduled oil change I had at 6pm on the shore. The car was overdue for one, and since I'll be driving it around a lot in Western/Central MD this weekend it needed done. I was assured we could leave a bit before 5, which would give me about an hour and 10 minutes leeway to arrive on time. We didn't leave until almost a quarter after the work day had ended. This tardiness was definitely not my doing.

We finally get on the road and dealt with the normal D.C. local traffic (which can be a nightmare in itself), arrived on Route 50 and were met with backed up traffic from an accident on 95. I called the place and said I'd be a bit late, no problem. That is until we smacked into a massive amount of traffic because people for some reason don't understand how to properly drive across the Severn River Bridge.

Seriously, I don't know why, but no one understands that you should (unless there are poor weather conditions such as rain, heavy wind, ice, or snow) keep your speed up as you are crossing this bridge. BUT NO ONE DOES! For the life of me I can't figure out why. Maybe because the bridge is built with a pretty drastic curve in the road, and that blocks some visibility thus making people nervous. I have no idea, but it is extremely annoying to me.

So I was about 43 minutes late for my oil change. However, the guys managed to fit me in, which I thought was pretty nice of them.

Commute home, last night

Start Time: 5:13pm

Arrival at shop: 6:43pm

Arrival at home: 8:47pm

Now this morning I hop in the car and yep, smacked with traffic - however it wasn't too bad today. Until I realized that my car was making an odd tinny noise when it accelerated to lower speeds after a complete stop. And the noise wasn't always there when I accelerated.

Of course this doesn't happen until I'm actually over the D.C. line. So I pulled into the parking garage at work and thought "could this be my muffler?" Whelp, after gently tapping it with my foot (I couldn't actually touch the thing, it's hot from the long commute) it seems that for some reason the muffler is loose. And I could replicate the sound, which means if my foot rocking it can make that noise, I'm sure the car bouncing along on the road will as well. Can we say "I think the mechanic hit it during the oil change and the rest of the commute shook it loose?" That's my working theory for now at least. I'm just thankful that it does not seem to be bent or crushed. But I'll have to take a better look at it this weekend. Really, that's the last thing I need to worry about right now.

Start Time: 7:32am (another late morning, I know)

Arrival Time: 9:08am

I've had it!

The creation of this particular blog occurred because of snapping point that I reached earlier this week. You see, I work in Washington, D.C. It's a pretty cool city to work in, and I clinched the job opportunity of a lifetime. That's NOT the problem here. The problem is that I currently LIVE on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

This means that EACH WAY with NO traffic the drive takes an hour and a half, that's right 90 minutes. (You could make it in 75-80 if you speed and there is no one on the road.) It works out to be about 70 miles each way. That's a total of three hours in the car (IF there is NO traffic) and a 140 miles a day, 5 days a week. Let's be honest, that's a lot. It's not a fun commute.

Now, consider if there was traffic. Tons of other crappy, rude, and jerkish (yes I know that's not a word) drivers out there to add to the time and frustration of the commute. That would really make things worse, right? Well guess what, it's Washington, D.C. a city ranked with one of the worse commute times in the nation. There's almost ALWAYS traffic and terrible drivers.

In fact, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2009 "American Community Survey" D.C. ranked in the number 2 spot for highest percentage of commuters who spend 45 minutes or more traveling to work. (Number one was NYC, and still is according to the 2010 survey.) The 2010 survey reflected that workers who lived Prince George's County, MD and other suburban counties around the D.C. metro area had some of the longest commute times in the country. Please note, I have to drive an hour just to GET to these counties, and then deal with their commute times as well.

So what exactly was my breaking point? I've been doing this drive for 8 and a half months, why snap now? Well, for a combination of reasons.

1) I am trying to close on a house located in a city nearby that would give me a 15 minute walk to a train station, with a 45 minute ride into D.C. Not too bad in my opinion, especially considering the alternative is to continue with a minimum of 3 HOURS in a car almost everyday. However, it is taking forever for the deal to go through since it's a short sale. I was supposed to have closed on the house in June, it's now September.
2) Earlier this week it took me 2 and a half hours to get into work, 2 AND A HALF HOURS! Maybe I should add that I also commute into D.C. with a family member, thus allowing us to utilize the HOV lane. IT STILL TOOK US 2 AND A HALF HOURS! Then there was a full day of work and a 100 minute ride home.

3) The amount of miles that I am putting on my poor Honda Civic is insane. The cost of gas, and almost monthly oil changes could be worse, but it ISN'T good.

In short, this commute sucks.

I've started this blog to keep track of exactly how much time is being sucked out of my life and how insanely frustrating this drive really is. Perhaps I just want to keep a record, so that when I'm on the news as that crazy driver who just pulled off on the side of the highway and started screaming at all the passing cars while throwing her commuting supply of breakfast bars at peoples' windshields, someone will know why.

While this mornings was not terrible for the first part, the amount of traffic that I hit while trying to cross over the D.C. line from MD was insane. Granted we got a late start, but this was still nuts.
Start Time: 7:30am
End Time: 9:13 am
Total Time: 1 hour, 43 minutes