Rush Hour: the modern hell

Rush Hour: the modern hell

Whoever invented the 8-hour 9-to-5 work day, invented the rush hour. Whoever invented the layout of cities in grids, invented gridlock. Whoever invented the daily commute invented MODERN HELL.

Or should we say "modern PURGATORY"? It is a kind of two-hour limbo. Can you imagine what it would be like without the conveniences of the modern automobile? Air-contioning, radio and CD player or iPod, cell phone. Hell, indeed. One of the things keeping commuters stuck in traffic from going berserk is probably the cell phone: yakking away makes them pass the time without realizing it.

Has anyone seen Fellini's 8 1/2? The opening dream sequence of Guido stuck in a traffic jam in Rome in one of the most famous and memorable scenes in all of cinema. It was copied as the opening scene in Falling Down with Michael Douglas as a disgruntled defense employee who's been fired in the early 90's and, finding himself stuck in a traffic jam in L.A., snaps and goes on a rampage.

That scene from "8 1/2" was shot in 1962. Cars didn't have the modern conveniences of today back then--certainly not air-contioning, CD players, iPods, or cell phones! But Rome already had traffic jams! Rome is a very ancient city, though. Whatever is "modern" in Rome comes from the destruction of world War II and the rebuilding that followed. Unbelievably, Rome has a subway. As Fellini's own Roma documents, wherever they dug, the found Roman ruins. Still, they managed to build a subway--proof on Europe's unswerving commitment to good, reliable public transportation.

L.A. has had many chances to redeem herself when it comes to public transportation, but it has missed most of those chances. L.A. is "car city, USA." Detroit may be "car maker city, USA" but L.A. is "car showcase city, USA." This is where most of the cars made in Detroit, Europe and Japan end up: Southern California. If that is the case, wouldn't you think that the city itself would be the showcase for one of the most marvelous transit and traffic systems in the world?

Perhaps this WAS so 50 or 40 years ago, but as my posts so far have demonstrated, it is a system that has failed miserably to adapt and update itself in the midst of an unprecedented explosion in urban and population growth. What to do to make sure it does adapt and update itself is what this blog is all about. Whether any of this would ever reach the "ears"and minds of those with the power to do anything about it, is anyone's guess.

Just like we've wondered how it is possible that no one (not even Buckminster Fuller?) seems to have steered urban planning AWAY from the GRID, it seems that no one has had the political power or will to steer companies away from the rush hour. WHY does most everyone's workday HAVE TO start at 8:00, 8:30 or 9:00 in the morning? WHY does most everyone's workday HAVE TO end at 4:30, 5:00, 5:30 in the evening? Just like we have Daylight SAVINGS time, couldn't we have Daily RUSH HOUR SAVINGS time? The modern workday is the recipe for the modern gridlock of rush hour--modern hell.

Would tax breaks be the incentive to have companies use a staggered work schedule? If company A starts working at 8:00am and company B at 9:00am and company C at 10:00am, that hour between them would also space out the volume of cars on the road heading in their direction. This is not an Utopian dream. This is something that local governments and local companies should be seriously considering. Just like urban planning needs to start steering away from the grid and the gidlock it causes, cities and their workforces need to start steering away from the rush hour the 9-to-5 workday causes.

It is a bit paradoxical (let's steer clear of the word "ironic") that in the age of telecommunications, the computer, and the internet, there seems to be more people on the road at rush hour. Couldn't they get the same work done telecommuting from home with a phone and a broadband connection?

The movie Falling Down ends with the Michael Douglas character caught in a real "jam." Unless the whole movie was a bad dream, he would have been better off staying in that traffic jam and daydreaming (or yakking away on his cell phone! Guess they didn't really have those back in '93!). And we, too, can dream that L.A. has wonderful traffic. But unless we do something about it, it'll be just a dream. As it is, angelenos are caught themselves in a jam, a real jam--as in traffic jam. Let them keep their cell phones if that keeps them from going berserk like Michael Douglas in Falling Down.
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