The Office 1: The Commute
Posted on | September 21, 2007 at 7:42 am | 4 Comments
I haven’t written about work much, mainly because I don’t want to get into trouble. And it’s boring anyway. But I figure it’s probably okay to talk about in general terms, as long as I don’t go into detail about my project and such. There’s been a big change in my work life lately, which I’ve mentioned a bit before. The building I used to work in was only a 10 minute drive from my house. In fact, the last three companies I worked for were all in the same area, within a one mile radius. So it’s been a long time (around 15 years) since I’ve had to do any sort of commute. Over a year ago, my company announced they weren’t renewing the lease on the building we were in, which was up this month. Most of the people were going to have to commute far up north to one of our offices near Boulder (although I suspect most of them area actually Working From Home most of the time now). But the people on my project got to move near downtown Denver, into the same building where our customer is. In fact, we did this move early, back in mid-April. So, I’ve been making the drive for over 5 months now, from southwestern Lakewood to central Denver. I believe it’s around 13 miles.
In the beginning, it wasn’t so bad. I would leave my house around 8am, same as when I was working at the old building. It usually took me 20 minutes to get to the new office. Sometimes I made it in as little as 17 minutes. If I left earlier, the commute took longer because I had to fight all the people trying to get to work by 8. However, lately the morning commute has grown to around 30 minutes or more every day, due to increased congestion on 6th Avenue, the main East-West highway on the middle-west side of the metro area. And I can’t figure out why. Yeah, the sun is getting lower in the sky than it was, but there’s no big glare problem at 8-8:30 yet. The sister of a co-worker, who has been making a similar commute for 4 years, was telling him that she noticed the extra congestion also, and that it just started a few months ago. She said it was that bad before occasionally, but not every day like it is now. It probably has something to do with the fact that I’m on that commute now.
Leaving at the same time I did when I went to the old building is nice, because I can still get up at the same time and do my whole leisurely morning routine (running, stretching, watching last night’s TDS and Colbert, eating breakfast, reading the paper, answering e-mail, posting blog entries, etc). But now I may have to cut some of that out to still get to work at a reasonable time. Or wake up even earlier.
The commute home is always pretty bad, no matter what time I leave. 6th seems to get pretty congested westward from around 4:30pm to 6:30pm every day. And just getting to 6th is a pain. When 6th hits Denver eastward, it becomes one way east, so on the way back west you pretty much have to take 8th Avenue west to get back to where 6th becomes two way. But I’ve learned to avoid 8th Avenue all together, especially with all the construction going on there now. Anyway, even though the morning commute is getting worse, the evening one seems to be getting better. It started out being around 40 minutes long, but now it seems like it’s closer to 30. So apparently there’s some sort of equilibrium thing going on. I’d be fascinated to see any rush hour traffic studies of the metro area that have been done recently. Maybe the completion of the longtime T-Rex I-25 renovation project has messed up the feeder roads or something.
I’ll tell ya, I’m glad I have the Prius. The Acura RSX didn’t get that bad of gas mileage, but the Prius is much better. I’ve saved myself a lot in gas money.
One nice thing about the new commute is that the new office is close to where N lives and where she works, so I can see more of her and meet her for lunch and such.
Next: The Parking Garage From Hell
Pet Peeve Of The Day: It seems like ever since I started driving the Prius, other drivers somehow think I’m a wimpy driver (I’m not – I’m actually more aggressive than most Denver drivers; ask anyone) and that it’s okay to cut me off. I swear, this didn’t happen nearly as much when I drove the (smaller) Acura RSX. I’m the person that the other drivers are always trying to squeeze in front of when they are changing lanes during rush hour, even though I don’t leave a bigger gap than anyone else. Frequently the person in front of me will have a bigger gap in front of them. Cars on side streets will suddenly turn onto my road in front of me, barely giving me time to brake. I’ve seen people in back of me, tailgating me, who suddenly switch lanes and then get back in my lane in front of me, even though we’re all going the same speed. Sigh, I guess it’s true that driving a Prius marks you. Time to install the front-mounted laser cannons. Or maybe to remove my personalized KICKME license plate.
Latre.
Comments
4 Responses to “The Office 1: The Commute”
September 21st, 2007 @ 2:10 pm
Hey, I suddenly have a commute for the first time in about 15 years as well! But in my case, it was 6th avenue LAST time – this time it’s the M1. Yet, I also work very near where someone named Nancy is employed… Weird, huh?
Back in my Denver driving days, traffic WAS pretty predictable, and tolerable if you had the flexibility to avoid hotspots. When I left, T-Rex was still years away and I can’t imagine it being finished, even though I saw it with my own eyes last time I was there. I guess that’s because people like you are driving wimpy Priuses instead of taking light rail like good citizens.
> I’d be fascinated to see any rush hour traffic studies of the metro area
You mean you don’t already get a HD channel of that direct from the satellite?
September 25th, 2007 @ 9:34 pm
I dunno — my memories of the Sixth Avenue Commute were that it was incredibly long — and I haven’t been on that road but once in over a quarter century. Seemed like it was taking me 30 minutes just to get from Simms-Union to Federal. In fact I remember taking my mom to work on occasions, she worked at the University of Colorado Medical Center, it would take me about an hour round-trip in the morning, fourty-five minutes of which were spent on 6th.
(Senior year was great Parent Training: Mornings, take Mom to UCMC, get to GMHS for first period, then in the afternoon, pick up sister from GMHS, drop her off at ballet school at 6th and Broadway, jump back over to UCMC pick up Mom, back to 6th and Broadway to pick up sister, then back out to Green Mountain. Truly depressing when you can measure significant fractions of days spent on 6th Avenue, all the way from Simms to Colorado Blvd. and back. Twice.)
So what you need to do is try Seattle for a month. That will make 6th seem like driving in Wyoming.
September 25th, 2007 @ 9:52 pm
??? GMHS? Is this the Gregory I’m thinking of? Mr Sawyer? I totally didn’t get that from your previous comments. Long time, no hear! How ya doing, man?? How long have you been in Seattle, and what are you doing there?
October 2nd, 2007 @ 12:58 pm
Yes, it is indeed the Gregory that you are thinking of.
More Laytyr;