How to look at Traffic – Studies in Visual Cultures

Spiro, Peter, “Traffic Jam in a Blizzard.” December 21, 2007. Image © iStock.

How to Look at Traffic

Many individuals find it quite difficult to process the concept of traffic as it naturally does not make sense. However, if everyone is trying to get to the same place simultaneously, would there not just be a steady flow of cars driving? The answer to this question is no. If all drivers just drove freely at around the same speed, there would be no traffic. However, when a single car hits the brakes, it is over; traffic has commenced.

Traffic may be caused by a wide range of factors, many of which are unexpected. Road obstacles and construction alter traffic flow and lower speed limits, causing an ultimate pile-up of cars. Lane closures hinder the traffic flow as vehicles are forced from multiple lanes down to a single one. Accidents or double parking causes blockage on the road, leading to even more traffic. Broken traffic signals malfunction due to their outdated computer systems. Inadequate green time causes fuming and stressed drivers. Ridiculous amounts of pedestrians walking, limiting the number of cars that can turn. The list goes on.

Additionally, there are also drivers who I alarmingly wonder how they ever obtained their license. First, we have preoccupied drivers who are doing absolutely anything besides driving. Next, we have precipitous drivers speeding through cars, deliberately endangering others and creating hazards. Then, we have drivers who are dozing off and not concentrating on what they are doing. Finally, there are the senior drivers who are petrified to accelerate any faster than forty.

Aside from the greater community not knowing how to drive, there is also weather to appraise. First, the frigid temperatures cause panic to inexperienced drivers. The torrential downpours where your wipers operate so rapidly you can scarcely identify the road ahead of you. Frosted windshields that take forever to defog in the forbidding mornings. Lastly, the blanketing snow makes it nearly impossible to drive in without a pair of solidified winter tires.

Traffic is so tedious and aggravating, although we scarcely look at it excessively as it has become a part of our daily routines. You wake up in the morning, get into your vehicle, depart from your driveway, exit your neighbourhood, and boom, dead stop traffic. A fifteen-minute route has become a forty-five-minute bumper-to-bumper death trap. The outrage and exasperation undertake your mind as you cruise twenty kilometres in a hundred-kilometre zone. The momentous contemplation of maneuvering in between cars and considering exiting the highway, praying it will make your daily commute slightly shorter and a lot less dreadful. Regardless, there is no approach to circumvent traffic; it is everywhere.

While you loiter through traffic encompassed by the uncountable vehicles surrounding you, the unpleasant stench of squander gasoline fills your nostrils. You undergo a moment of emptiness as your money is withdrawn, draining an abundance of gas every time you accelerate. You can visualize the grimy and malodorous fumes exit from your car, rising into the atmosphere, contaminating our environment, slaughtering our earth, and eliminating our future.

Traffic is inevitable, and it is unquestionably annoying.

Works Cited

Spiro, Peter. “Traffic Jam in a Blizzard.” iStock, 21 Dec. 2007, https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/traffic-jam-in-a-blizzard-gm144954876-4920280

Disclaimer: Images in this online exhibit are either in the public domain or being used under fair dealing for the purpose of research and are provided solely for the purposes of research, private study, or education.