life is too short for traffic

Today, I stood on the bus for almost an hour as we were trapped in completely standstill traffic.  What should have been a normal 15-20 minute trip turned into a ridiculous hour-long nightmare.

The reason?  President Bush was in town.  Now, I live in DC.  The president travels around often, and we never shut the whole city down.  So I was unused to this level of security.  First, his actual destination was confidential, so multiple places were blocked off.  Second, so that no one could guess where he was heading, the entire major east-west artery of Baltimore was blocked.

Am I the only one thinking that this is ridiculous?  There was little to no warning given, and no information as to which streets would be blocked.  Thus, not only was downtown Baltimore traffic inconvenienced, but so was any through-traffic (in which I am included).

It was a logistical nightmare.  No one could go north-south.   Thus, few people could go east-west.  I watched as ambulances, sirens blaring, sat in traffic as well, because we really could not move.  One of Baltimore’s major hospital systems, University of Maryland sat in the middle of this mess.

I made it to campus with plenty of time to spare, mostly because I gave myself a couple extra hours (I try to make it early to get work done).   But most of the people on the bus with me were late for class, appointments, and meetings.  All because the president was in town.