Early Morning Traffic Types

Blog Date - 08 April 2014

I set off for work early. I hate mad rush hour traffic and this is the best way to avoid it. I get on the road at 0600 and get to work at 0705 usually. While it means an early night and an early rise it's worth it just to avoid a frantic fight with all the other rush hour victims. When traversing the roads at this early hour there are still other road users. These road users tend to fall into two distinct types. 

Firstly there's the plodders, like myself. We know we've got time on our side. We've made the effort to get up early and be ready in good time. As such there's no rush. We tend to keep on or close to the speed limit even when the road ahead is deserted. We don't rush the lights and take a chance on amber. We tend to be driving simple ordinary cars or in my case a plain 125 motorcycle. We'll be listening to Radio 2 and thinking about what's for tea and do we need to stop at the early morning news agents for milk. Life is calm, serene and relaxed.

Then there's the go-getters. I am of course going to make some unfair assumptions here in the name of humour, but there's many a true word spoken in jest. 

These people get up early to impress the boss by being first in. They are in fact lazy so have left everything to the last minute which then creates the need to rush to work as fast as possible. Of course the roads are fairly empty and they feel justified in breaking the speed limits as no-one's around and the nasty police people will all be in bed. Plodders like myself are a nuisance, blocking the roads and frustrating their progress. They plan to be in the office at 0700 yet always arrive at 0710 and get really angry because James the smart new kid is in before them. They blame the plodders for getting in the way rather than themselves for not getting up early enough.

They drive new or nearly new German cars. Those starting out drive VW's, the bigger the better. Those getting somewhere have BMW's or if they consider themselves as "alternative" then it's an Audi. To be fair Mercedes drivers are more likely to be in the plodder's group as they now consider themselves successful and have very little left to prove. Mercedes drivers do believe they own the road though, so while they plod along you'd best not be in their way. 

These are my observations as I ride along. It takes me an hour to cover the 25 mile trip, in a mix of 30, 40 and 50 zones. While I don't like to get up too early, especially in winter, it's worth it to have the time to enjoy my journey. I'm sure I'm being too harsh and presumptuous but it makes me feel better being cynical about those who relentlessly overtake me when I'm already at the speed limit. It's good to laugh rather than get cross. 

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