[RANT ON]

Ok, I officially gave someone gruff for this recently.  I’ll lay it out simple and fast.  If you are late because of traffic, you are still late and it is your fault.  Don’t blame the inanimate progression of induced demand that has left you stuck because you where ill-prepared to understand or navigate your way to you destination.

Sure, sometimes it is hard to plan around, but you still need to plan around it.  You need to be prepared.  When you’re late because of traffic you should state, “I didn’t prepare well for the traffic on the trip”.  Instead of, “oh the traffic was horrible” as if suggesting it is everyone else’s fault.  Shut up and take it like a smart person, realize when you screwed up and get to work, get to wherever you’re going and don’t shrug off the responsibility.

Better yet, if you don’t want to deal with traffic, take transit.  The travel times are vastly more reliable than automobile travel times through traffic.  Even though transit is often in traffic, it often doesn’t run through the main arterials (like I-5 & I-84 in PDX) and in key choke points buses often have dedicated turn offs and light rail has dedicated ROW.  So get off the idea that somehow you should shirk responsibility for being late because of traffic.

If you want an even more reliable mode of transport than driving and transit, ride a bike.  I’m not kidding, get off your lazy butt and ride a bike.  Don’t feed me some crap about, “it’s rainy” or “it’s dirty” or “I might get sweaty” or blagh blagh blagh.  There are ways to fix 90% of the sorry excuses to not bike.

Last but not least, if you want the most reliable mode of transport – WALK.  Again, no weak & pathetic excuses about “I live too far away” or “But my feet hurt” or “but I don’t have walking shoes”.  Again, I don’t care.  Get to work, show up on time when other people need you to be there.  If you live too far away, again, that’s your fault and a bad choice might I add, if you’re feet hurt you probably need to walk a LOT more, if you don’t have shoes, GO BUY SOME!!  Either way, there is no excuse.

It is YOUR FAULT and YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to show up on time.

[RANT OFF]

Thanks, this has been a public announcement of common sense by the Transit Sleuth.