Project Vision 21

Francisco Miraval

A few weeks ago, a trip that usually takes no more than 45 minutes took me two and a half hours, due to construction and accidents. A few days later, a short trip of no more than 20 minutes turned into a 90 minutes trek. For that reason, I am beginning to wonder what the name is for the phobia of being caught in a traffic jam, just in case that phobia may exist.

The growing frequency of unavoidable and unending traffic jams in the area where I live (Denver) is the result of normal demographic growth, a strong economic recovery (leading to many highway building projects), and recent social changes, including the legalization of recreational marijuana, that attracted thousands of newcomers to Colorado.

If things keep “progressing” in this manner, the time will come when we will live in a permanent traffic jam, as portrayed in “Gridlock,” an episode of Doctor Who that aired on April 2007. (The good news is that, according to Doctor Who, that situation will happen in New New York, not in Denver, and it will happen in about five billion years.)

I don’t want to think about a ten-mile trip taking six years to complete, as presented in the above mentioned science-fiction episode, so let’s go back to the present. The truth is a traffic jam could have a severe physical, mental, and emotional impact. Adding the time ridiculously wasted, the behavior of a person can change to be point of becoming a phobia (extreme or irrational aversion to something or somebody.)

In the case of traffic jams, the phobia is an exquisite mix of claustrophobia (fear of small spaces) and agoraphobia (fear of open spaces or environments that look dangerous.)

In a traffic jam, you are usually outdoors and obviously you are surrounded by many other people. At the same time, you are absolutely alone (except for those also in your car), unable to move, to stop, to exit, or to change or improve your situation.

The uncertainty about how much longer you will have to wait, the fear of being late or even too late for your meeting or appointment, and the urge of some biological situations (from a headache to the need of finding a restroom) intensify the feeling of being powerless to find a solution, an “exit” to the problem. Patience, always a good virtue, is tested to the limit.

What do I really dislike about traffic jams? Perhaps, as I said, I don’t like feeling powerless. O perhaps it is the paradox of being trapped by a technology supposedly created to make life easier, not more complicated, for us.

Yet, I am afraid that what I really don’t like is “the others.” I found myself thinking that it would be good for “the others” to disappear, thus solving my problem. Then, I realize that I am “the other of the other” and that somebody is wishing for me to disappear. And that is what I really, really don’t like.