Traffic, Then and Now

I live in a state that doesn't have mass transit anywhere in the state; if you want to go anywhere, you have to go by car. I grew up in a city that depended on mass transit to move its millions of people from place to place.

Elsewhere in the state, you drove your car but I didn't see bicycles or motorcycles on the highway. I'm sure they existed but they didn't have the right of way and, in those years, there were no bicycle lanes in traffic.

When I hear my clients talk about traffic in their European or Asian cities, I can see such a different life from when I was growing up. Of course, it may be that there are so many years separating my life then and my life now.

At the time, there were much fewer cars on the highway and everyone traveled by subway to get to where they were going. On the weekends you could take your car into the city and there was relatively little traffic and you could always find a place to park.

Nowadays, it's not only easier to take the subway to wherever you're going in the city but it's also more cost-effective because parking is so limited and so expensive.

The one thing that has not changed in all these years is that when you live in a metropolitan city, you are surrounded by everything you need or could want.

If you want to go out to lunch in the city, when you walk out of your office you're just a few blocks away from some of the best restaurants. Of course, you have to get there before the lunch crowd if you want to get a table because restaurants fill up very fast during peak times.

For the most part, I remember that it didn't pay to take a bus in the business district because most things are within walking distance. And, unless you were having a working lunch in your office, it didn't pay to order food to be delivered because restaurants were a hop, skip, and a jump away from your office.

I don't imagine much has changed in that regard between metropolitan cities and suburbia but I'm just very glad I grew up in a metropolitan area when I was young enough to enjoy all it had to offer. Nowadays, I'm just very glad I can get to where I'm going by car.

Connie H. Deutsch is an internationally known business consultant and personal advisor who has a keen understanding of human nature and is a natural problem-solver.



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