commuting news

Apparently the local commute made national news today, so let me tell you, yeah: It was truly awful. For everyone but me.

First, the overview: Power went out in a big part of downtown, so tons of office buildings lost power. Dead traffic lights meant traffic was such a disaster that three pedestrians were hit by cars. There were two fires, several hours apart, in the biggest downtown metro station (little fires, but big enough to shut down one tunnel). Several stations lost power; one had to close because the escalators are so long that people walking up kept needing medical attention. One guy's implanted defibrillator went off (ouch).

Now, my morning: At 8:30, I got on the metro. The train was a little slow, but got to the station at close to my normal time - I think I managed to travel in the window between the two track fires. The power was out at my stop, but there were emergency lights so it wasn't too dark. I strolled out the open fare gates. I walked up the short escalator. The one street I crossed had working traffic lights. The power was on in my office.

Yup. On the most disastrous commuting day of the year, in the most disastrous commuting week of the year - a day when, I note bitterly, lots of people didn't have to work 'cause their offices had no power - I had a perfectly normal day.