A gust of perspective is often necessary when we are at our wit’s end.
Very few everyday tasks push us to the edge as much as driving in teeth-grinding, anger-inducing metro Atlanta traffic. The sheer amount of vehicles on the road is the main issue, but mishaps of all flavors add to the mess.
But for whatever inconveniences those crashes, stalls or plain heavy traffic cause most motorists, the people who incurred damaged or broken cars or bodies experience far worse in those moments. At best, drivers stuck in a road jam are delayed. At worst, those involved in a crash face expensive auto bills and hospital costs. At the very worst, someone close to them is making funeral plans.
Our human nature wires us to be reactive, meaning our carnal fuses often blow before that empathetic perspective can kick in and pump our brakes. Pun intended.
If first responders block an entire freeway for hours, the traffic is horrible. My job is to report on that each weekday morning on 11Alive with Rachel Cox-Rosen. But nearly every shut down involves something more serious than those backups.
Police often have to block all lanes for long durations for crash investigations, which almost always take place because serious injuries or fatalities are involved.
If a truck overturns and spills its load, a driver misses a deadline, gets home late and businesses may not get their products. Other entities are paying or losing thousands of dollars, and there could be structural and environmental ramifications on the road and in the area around the crash.
On Mother’s Day evening, a fire tore through apartments on Peachtree Boulevard near Clairmont Road in Chamblee. As ladder trucks blasted water onto the burning roof, Chamblee police blocked the boulevard.
I walked by with my dog and watched drivers diverting. I imagined at least a few were ticked off at the blockage before even considering that dozens of people got displaced on an otherwise beautiful Sunday.
Then there are the rare, planned road closures that also draw outsized rage, but do not fall into one of the above categories. The scheduled closure of the entirety of I-285 in southwest Atlanta this weekend is because of crucial maintenance work, not the result of tragedy. The enormity of the shut down and the detour, however, is ridiculous in a city so busy.
But laughing is better medicine than yelling, an approach Cox-Rosen and I decided to take when we made a video where she used my face as a canvas and shaving cream as paint to explain the I-285 closure.
Bad traffic is not always the result of bad news.
When I spoke with Georgia Tech professor Michael Hunter in 2021 about horrible traffic leaving Braves games during their World Series run, he turned me on to this idea. Basically, he said heavy volume is often a result of good things: concerts and sports loved by many, a robust economy and beautiful weather or holidays that make people want to leave the house.
My dad used to frustrate me when he would challenge my, well, childhood frustrations. I would snipe and pout about something and he, who was prone to the very same ailment, would remind me of a greater perspective. That would frustrate me even more. But it held true then and does still: Many of our traffic problems pale in comparison to the costly things that cause them.
Normal traffic delays are often the result of entertainment and prosperity. Here’s to hoping there is a little less profanity behind the wheel.
Doug Turnbull covers the traffic/transportation beat for WXIA-TV (11Alive). His reports appear on the 11Alive Morning News from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. and on 11Alive.com. Email Doug at dturnbull@11alive.com. Subscribe to the weekly “Gridlock Guy” newsletter for the column here.
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