How Cold Weather Can Double Your Travel Time
So I wake up an hour late for work this morning, since my alarms didn't wake me up this morning. I plugged my phone into my charger last night and put in on my nightstand like I usually do. The problem is that the closest outlet is a ways away and my phone when attached to the charger has to sit near the edge of my nightstand making the cord itself rather taut. It has to be on the nightstand to wake me up because its vibration noise is what wakes me up in the mornings. This morning, when the alarm started to go off, it must have vibrated itself off my nightstand onto the floor before I woke up, rendering it ineffective. Thankfully my body woke me up at 6:20AM and I was very confused for a minute or two while looking at the clock deciphering what time it was.
Well, it's no big deal really, because I didn't have anything really early in the morning today and I could afford to get in around 7AM. I quickly got ready and left for work. It was another cold night last night and my car thermometer dipped to about 28 degrees during my drive. I was making good time for the first 15 minutes as there was no traffic in front of me. That is, until I crossed the highway overpass and descended into chaos. There was a huge line of cars ahead of me and all were stopped cold in their tracks. I had missed my traffic report up to that point and within 5 minutes I was humored by the fact that there were accidents on almost every major highway around, including the one I was on. Apparently there was some precipitation last night and combined with the freezing temperatures we've been having, the roads were very slick this morning. You could actually see snow in the foothills outside of Taft while driving. This made for some unsafe travel early on and led to, you guessed it - accidents.
I reassessed my options and realized that I had no other choice but to inch along in traffic. There were numerous blinking lights ahead and I could here sirens in the distance so I knew I was getting close to bypassing the action. Soon, on my right side there was a truck lying upside down in a ditch. It must have been an earlier accident because no one was around it anymore. I then came across a mild accident with a couple cars showing heavy dent marks after a rear-front collision. Nothing looked too serious with the accident but it seemed to be the most recent and thus most active scene. Eventually I passed through the major intersection where most of the hold up was located and we started picking up speed (going a whole 15 mph). As we started rolling, I looked ahead to my left, I saw another truck lying upside down in a ditch, again with no one around it. It was like it just rained trucks along the highway.
In the end I made it safely to work going only about 45 minutes out of my way. Like I said earlier, no one cared all that much that I came in late. In some ways I am very thankful that I accidentally overslept this morning. Who knows what kind of action I might have been mixed up in. The sub-freezing temperatures should moving out soon, but until then remember to practice your safe driving etiquette!
Well, it's no big deal really, because I didn't have anything really early in the morning today and I could afford to get in around 7AM. I quickly got ready and left for work. It was another cold night last night and my car thermometer dipped to about 28 degrees during my drive. I was making good time for the first 15 minutes as there was no traffic in front of me. That is, until I crossed the highway overpass and descended into chaos. There was a huge line of cars ahead of me and all were stopped cold in their tracks. I had missed my traffic report up to that point and within 5 minutes I was humored by the fact that there were accidents on almost every major highway around, including the one I was on. Apparently there was some precipitation last night and combined with the freezing temperatures we've been having, the roads were very slick this morning. You could actually see snow in the foothills outside of Taft while driving. This made for some unsafe travel early on and led to, you guessed it - accidents.
I reassessed my options and realized that I had no other choice but to inch along in traffic. There were numerous blinking lights ahead and I could here sirens in the distance so I knew I was getting close to bypassing the action. Soon, on my right side there was a truck lying upside down in a ditch. It must have been an earlier accident because no one was around it anymore. I then came across a mild accident with a couple cars showing heavy dent marks after a rear-front collision. Nothing looked too serious with the accident but it seemed to be the most recent and thus most active scene. Eventually I passed through the major intersection where most of the hold up was located and we started picking up speed (going a whole 15 mph). As we started rolling, I looked ahead to my left, I saw another truck lying upside down in a ditch, again with no one around it. It was like it just rained trucks along the highway.
In the end I made it safely to work going only about 45 minutes out of my way. Like I said earlier, no one cared all that much that I came in late. In some ways I am very thankful that I accidentally overslept this morning. Who knows what kind of action I might have been mixed up in. The sub-freezing temperatures should moving out soon, but until then remember to practice your safe driving etiquette!
posted by Chris Burzlaff @ 1/17/2007
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