Driving Alone to Work

Let's face it. Chances are we drive ourselves to work. We know that we should be carpooling or taking public transportation--but we just can't give up that unspoken luxury of belting ourselves into a perfectly adjusted driving seat, cueing up our favourite CD, and navigating the most expensive motor powered device we've ever purchased onto public city streets.

For those of us who drive ourselves to work, we are familiar with the challenges of parking, one-way streets, freeway off-ramps, pedestrians, and double-parked UPS trucks. We know all too well the fateful decision of selecting a route that brings us directly upon a sea of red brake lights, leaving us wondering if an alternate route would be better or worse than our current predicament.

In fact, our very first concern after buckling our seat belt (and after selecting a favorite radio station) is probably the route to the office. We juggle time of day, day of week, holidays, weather, and how full the gas tank is--all of these factor into the decision for exactly which way is best. Think about how much knowledge we store in our brains to help us get to the point of knowing that taking the interstate between the hours of 6:45am and 7:40am will add fourteen minutes to our total commute time.

It's an amazing process, and yet in a split second we make the correct choice and head down the road. But today, almost as soon as we've settled into our satisfying world of route commitment, we come upon the unfortunate discovery that this particular morning a four-car fender bender has adversely affected our usual route time, and we are forced to make a decision.

We veer across four lanes of stopped traffic to reach that off-ramp and begin a street route, off the highway. We notice that about six other cars are attempting the same maneuver, but none of them is handling it as skillfully as we are. Novices! They probably usually take the bus to work. We make an under-the-breath comment about how they should all take the bus to work, so that the road would be clear for the real commuters.

Safely on the side-street route, we are suddenly affronted by stop-and-go buses and mindless, careless pedestrians. Who are all these people? What are they doing crossing my street? Why don't they obey the "Don't Walk" signs and just stay on the sidewalk? Have these pedestrians and bus drivers never been in a car themselves, to understand just how annoying they can be? We dutifully wait at the red light and honk at the car in front of us, who has used 2 seconds of our precious commuting time by stalling after the light turned green.

If the car needs gas, we stop and fill the tank ourselves, paying in full without worrying about splitting the cost between fellow carpool riders. It is our complete and sole responsibility as we brave the possibly stormy elements and pay the grease-smeared attendant, wait for change, and risk spilling foul-smelling gasoline on our shoes. The transaction is seldom marred by avariance from the routine, and only twice have we forgotten to replace the gas cap and then discovered streaks of paint-thinning petroleum on our vehicle.

Assuming that we arrive at the office in time, the next challenge is to find a parking spot. A privileged few of us will have the luxury of a garaged and predetermined spot, guaranteed available or the car wrongly occupying it will be towed. However, most of us are driving around a parking lot searching for a suitable spot that has to be the closest one to the entrance of the building. We have a subtle understanding of how spending ten extra minutes driving and searching, rather than parking a five-minute walk from the office, actually does save time…somehow.

Once in the office, we driving commuters have the option of an off-site lunch--a desirable option that public transportation users miss in our dinerless office parks. The ability to leave the office, rush through traffic, queue up in a fast food drive-thru lane, and then returne laden with styrofoam boxes to scatter on our blotters makes us the envy non-driving colleagues. This is a powerful motivation to roll out for that double cholesterol to go.

Errands may be run throughout the day, whenever we can sneak out of the office. Our weekends are not full of dry-cleaning and banking errands--we leave the cubicle and take care of them during the workday, when the public transportation world is trapped at the desk being productive.

We may occasionally be asked to pick up a birthday cake or a tray of pastries for the bus-riding administrative assistant--but these inconveniences diminish with the sense of responsibility and inside knowledge, to have learned exactly when the cake will be served and cut before the rest of the office receives the email.

It is with utmost confidence that we know the car will be there for us at the precise moment when we need it: ready to run a last minute package to FedEx; drive an already late boss to the airport; run a copy of a report to a client's office; and provide a dead battery jump-start to a colleague with poor auto maintenance habits. Those bus-taking, train-hopping, bicycle-riding, Rockport-shod nondrivers will never know the exhilaration of maintaining the feeling of independence and freedom that driving oneself to work day after day provides.

There is one moment of reverse envy, however, when the timetable-driven colleague glances at his watch at 4:58pm and says, "Got to go, carpool is here."

We feel a need for justification, and remind ourselves that we may exercise the right to leave when we wish, never forced to conform to another's schedule.

We decide to stay at our desk, waiing out rush hour before we begin our long drive home....

Ah, the luxury of it all.

Written by Layla Kashani, who spent several years driving to work in Washington DC, New York, and San Francisco; she currently telecommutes from home in San Diego with the car parked permanently in the driveway.