Lifetime lines and traffic woes
I used to like to fly, not any more. Flying today is a hectic, frenzied, frenetic
and feverish race against time, space and boredom. Many of you will remember the old days before
911 and before the underwear and shoe bombers, the good old days when terrorists
were confined to an occasional plane jacking that usually ended in a tropical
island. It may have been Cuba but at
least it was warm when you got off the plane and most did get off and survived
to tell the harried story.
When you combine all the wasted time sitting in TSA lines, removing your shoes and jackets, displaying your most private parts for the world to see you start to wonder if it’s really all worth it? When you add up the total number of hours wasted and the total cost of those hours the cost analysis of all this security is mind boggling.
One blogger and you have to admit that all bloggers tell
the truth, stated that Americans lose annually nearly 7 million years waiting in
lines at airports; yes I said seven million, million with an M. I personally don’t know how he came up with
that number but it does illustrate in a dramatic way the excessive degree in
which we inconvenience everyone for the safety of a relative few.
According Wireless internet service provider BT Openzone,
British business travelers spend 689,000 hours a month waiting in airports, with
most spending an average of two to three hours each month doing so. When added together that amounts to about one
lifetime lost, a life in essence sacrificed to waiting, not being productive,
just standing, inching along toward eventual death…so morose…Any volunteers?
There are thousands of examples that illustrate the
backward focus we currently have on resource allocation, time management or in
simple terms keeping us moving. We stand
in grocery lines, for hours at times at the DMV (motor vehicle) at banks or
amusement parks, don’t get me started but the worst by far is the time lost at
the airports by mostly very productive people who want to stay busy but are
forced to idle their precious time standing and waiting.
I don’t have a solution to the problem but I know I don’t
want to stand in lines anymore; it’s taken all the fun out of traveling. The same is true with rush hour traffic. I’ve resorted to taking detours, that take me
longer, just to avoid the aggravation of having to sit in my car not
moving. I don’t know about you but when
I’m driving I like to move, it’s a pet peeve of mine.
What’s worse than being on a freeway with a 70 mph limit
and you’re stopped, staring at the concrete lines and trying to read the
discarded messages on the Starbucks coffee cups littering the highways, totally stopped because someone two miles up
had a fender bender and decided to stop and exchange insurance information in
the middle of the road. The lost time
for all those behind when added up would be equal to the national debt, well
maybe I just made that up but it sure sounds good.
I read on the news the other day where a fatal accident,
and please don’t think I I’m not sympathetic to those family members who suffer
that great loss, but again from an economic standpoint when they close all lanes
of the 5 freeway near Los Angeles so they can investigate makes me wonder why
they haven’t developed a better way to balance the needs of the many with the
need of the one?
There was a science fiction story I read years ago, I can’t
remember the name of the story or the author but it was about an alien society
that excelled in improving everything they came in contact with. They were so in-tune with the needs of the
many that if an accident did occur it was immediately removed in order to
maintain the expected order.
I guess one of the problems we have is our obsession with
what might happen and with past events dictating future actions without really
considering the mass effects on society as a whole. Instead of thinking of how to manage the
lines and stoppages perhaps we should start thinking about how to prevent those
lines and keep people moving. The adage
of “time is money” is true and in a real sense has crippled our economy or at
least continues to stall the opportunities lost from being forced to remove our
belts and shoes.
The importance of being safe is essential but when compared
to the cost I think it’s time to reconsider the notion of profiling. Do 80 year old Caucasian women in a wheel
chair really pose a threat? I can see
security stopping me but a ten year old with a hello kitty backpack?
I think it’s time to have a national debate regarding this
issue of time management as it relates to the group rather than its historical
perspective of optimizing the individual.
We cannot forget about that individual but more often than not it’s the
individuals who gum up the works.
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