Life On The 401

I’d spent my adult life thus far doing my best to avoid driving on the highway. If I had to go somewhere that was beyond my city limits, I was either getting a ride from a parent/friend/boyfriend/coworker or I was taking public transit. I did not want to drive. I did not like to drive. And I barely had the means to drive anyway as my brother and I share an old car, and he was already taking it to work.

But recently I got a new job, and I knew I’d be a fool if I passed it up just because it involved a drive on the good old 401. I needed to break out of my shell (and hometown) and learn to face my fears.

Me getting into the car.

And I did!

Nearly every morning, I am one of thousands of people who get in their cars and embark on a journey on Ontario’s biggest highway. I’m driving faster than I’ve ever driven before. And also slower. Because traffic is awful!

Rush hour is rush hour. People have places to be, and I get it. I just wish Ontario had better infrastructure. We’re constantly promised expansions and new roads and transit lines and all these things that either never come to fruition or take years (if not decades to complete). So this is life. In good traffic, the drive should take me 25 minutes, but I’m lucky to do it in 45 on any given morning or afternoon. Sometimes it takes closer to an hour. And that’s all a step up from the nearly two hours it’d take on public transit.

But I’m working on getting those numbers down. I think I’ve figured out the sweet spot of when to get out of express and into collectors so I can eventually get off the highway and not get caught in the slowdown. And if I get onto the highway the next city over instead, I can bypass a weird slog there too. It’s these little tricks that I’m mad I have to think about, but I guess are all a part of the 401 commute life.

And you know what else, as I learned, is part of the 401 commute life? Lies. I am lied to constantly on that highway. Every so often, there’ll be these big electronic signs listing out some upcoming exits and how long it will take to get there. Those numbers are egregiously false. 16 minutes is really like 40. 7 minutes is more like 15. I am bamboozled by how wrong those signs are every day during regular rush hour traffic. And one time, I saw a sign saying that express was moving well while collectors was slow, so I made the choice to stay in express as long as I could, and that ended up also being a mistake as I found express to be even slower than usual.

I always assumed people’s road rage was directed at other drivers, but I think I’m developing it solely towards the highway itself. So far, I haven’t seen any idiot drivers doing reckless things. I just see unnecessary slowdowns and a road system that seems kind of broken for the volume it sees every day. I can only imagine what the 401 was like before the pandemic when everyone was in-office five days a week.

But whatever. My commute isn’t that bad, and I’m very proud of myself for pushing myself out of my comfort zone. I still don’t like to drive, but as long as I’m safe and get where I need to be in a somewhat reasonable time frame, it is what it is.

In related news, I’m thinking about listening to audiobooks on my drive. Goodness knows I have the time, and it may be a more realistic way for me to get back into books. Does anyone have thoughts on this? Good idea for an audiobook noob or ineffective way of consumption when focused on the road?

That’s all for now.

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