BEACH NOTES ... November 8, 2011 ... Ocean City, New Jersey

Walking to Work Vs Traffic Jams ... Thoughts from Ocean City, New Jersey

I may be one of a fairly low percentage of workers who never had to travel very far from their home.  For almost all of my first 32 years as a teacher and principal in public schools in Pennsylvania, I was less than a mile from home.  I often walked, but I also drove when having a car during or after school was a requirement.  I recall those days taking that relaxed walk home down a long walkway to our development instead of the long way around by car.

In my last 19 years as a real estate agent, it has been mostly the same.  I'm only 2-3 blocks from our agency office from our home in Ocean City, New Jersey.  Now I use my car a lot more in this job ... but I continue to walk and even bike a good part of the summer.

The real difference may be what I just read this morning in "The Hidden Toll of Traffic Jams" in the WALL STREET JOURNAL (11/8/2011) ... "Scientists Increasingly link Vehicle Exhaust with Brain-Cell Damage, Higher Rates of Autism."  It's an intriguing article as it explores a variety of changes that take place in children, adults, and the elderly from ongoing exposure.

The closest that I came from being impacted might have been the several years that I drove back and forth to Pennsylvania for a few days each week when my wife was still finishing her career there while I was starting my second career here.  I usually went through Philadelphia and the expressway which always depended on the time of day, the release of a crowd from a stadium game, and/or particular events going on in and around Philadelphia.

I'll just share a couple of thoughts from the article:  "Tuesday is the busiest morning peak period, but Friday from 5-6 PM is the most congested hour of the week ... The amount of delay for the average commuter was 34 hours for 2010 ... Congestion has worsened outside of rush-hour period with midday and overnight traffic jams ... The  Washington, D. C. area has the most wasted hours followed by Chicago and New York ... and Las Angeles area's freeways are more congested than any other city in the United States or Europe."

To wrap up this aspect ... driving in Ocean City (NJ) from mid-September through mid-April is an absolute pleasure in that we are almost down throughout that time frame to under 10,000 residents with weekends just a bit more crowded in some months in the fall and spring due to visitors.  We call it "island-time" down here!!!   dap