Driving around Los
Angeles is always an interesting experience. Besides the terrible traffic and insane
drivers (or vice-versa), there is just too much city to actually know all of
it. I have a pretty good idea of the
basic layout of freeways and main thoroughfares, and just rely on the fact that
it is basically a grid. Even if I lay
out a precise route ahead of time, I can't compensate for the unexpected
traffic jams, road closures, and construction delays, for any trip over 15
minutes. I frequently find myself making
an impulsive right hand turn to get off of a street that is suddenly coming to
a halt. That places me somewhere new,
that I have never been, while I try to find an efficient path to a point I am
more familiar with. I usually use dead
reckoning to ensure I am at least moving closer to my destination during that
search.
When I am down in the thick of things, I can't see the
traffic on the streets next to mine, the way someone following my progress on
Google Maps would. Before I had a smart-phone,
I used to call a friend of mine who was always in front of his computer,
anytime I got stuck in heavy freeway traffic, so he could check the Sigalert
website, and tell me which freeways were less congested options to get to my
destination. Outside input can be very
helpful in navigating certain situations, especially if I have never found
myself in a particular place before.
I am not necessarily always in a huge hurry, but I am
someone who is very conscious of how much time is being spent or wasted on a
particularly trip. I usually try to
avoid unnecessary delays or U-turns, purely for the sake of efficiency. In the same way, I don't always follow the
speed limit as closely as I could, but I recognize the risk I am taking by ignoring
that, both the potential for being pulled over and getting a ticket, or of
getting hurt more if something goes wrong.
I usually have a good idea of where my destination is
located, but the best route to get there is frequently less clear. And the same can be true in
relationships. It is not always clear
how to get to where we are trying to go.
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