old complaints that are still kind of relevant by Madeline Vega
My mom never wanted to drive me across town. We lived in the far west suburbs of Chicago. It wasn’t like driving from the Holland Tunnel to the Brooklyn Bridge. As my life drained away behind the wheel taking kids to school and track practice and searching for parking spots, I wanted to justify why my deal was so much worse than my mom’s—and that I was not just becoming my mom! The more time I spent writing a snarky piece in my head (and I say “in my head” because I spent a lot of time in the car—one day I filled up on gas, reset my odometer to zero, and an hour later—driving the whole hour—it told me I had gone 1.7 miles) to describe what it’s like to drive in an urban area, the more petty and unoriginal it seemed. I scouted where I might take pictures to compile an illustration. But numbers are all that really matter here. There are too many people so there are too many stop lights to try to control the flow of traffic and protect pedestrians. There are too many double parked delivery trucks. Too many Ubers making stops. Too many school buses stopping across multiple lanes. Right now in a pandemic it would still take me 25 minutes to get Kal to school from our apartment because red lights still work. I love drivers who act like I am the worst for driving 25 miles per hour and they have to pass me. And then we sit at the next seven red lights together. It’s all timed out. Relax people. Let the pedestrians cross. Wait to turn left safely. Try not to be such a dick. So, there are too many people following their own rules with no space to get around them and even less space to park. I randomly walked across the 59th Street Bridge in Feburary and was delighted to capture cars crossing in the walkway on the opposite side of the bridge. It might be Luis’ least favorite thing about city driving. Want to see what it looks like through the windshield at night? Check my IGTV https://tinyurl.com/uh66tpd
6
Art Department Weekly • April 7, 2020
