Just my luck
November 4th, 2026
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Unofficially, over the last 5 years, my city has grown by about 2000 people. And it is just my luck that all of them decided to live on or near the streets between my work and home. When I started working at my current job, it took me about 20 minutes to get back home in the afternoon. Occasionally, maybe 25 minutes. Now, 30 minutes is a good time to get back home, but more often it is about 40 minutes, and an hour (like today) is not uncommon. And I tried to leave work at different times between 15.30 and 16.30, hoping to find a good window in traffic on the particular route I take home, but to no avail. If anything, traffic starts to back up earlier than it did a week or a month ago. I cannot explain it — I know there are still plenty of new builds being constructed, but the vast majority are in outlying neighborhoods or in deep suburbs. Not along the semicircular interior ring road system that I use. So, there are more cars. But also, from what I see, there are plenty of people on public transportation and waiting at the bus stops. And no matter the November weather, a lot of people on bicycles are still moving around. By walking, I can get home in about an hour as well, so that might be some kind of solution. One of the most important reasons for me to live in a midsize city was easily manageable traffic, but that is no longer the case. A solution is wanted by me here.
