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This map represents my daily commute to and from work, plus a few other destinations as well.
The data was recorded with my GPS unit, then loaded into Google Earth. Each track is set to a 15% opacity, and where they overlap, it gets darker. Therefore, the darkest parts of the path represent areas I travel through frequently, while fainter areas represent rarely-travelled paths.
The blue line going up off the top of the map goes to my house, and the one going down off the bottom goes to my work. (what, you didn't think I'd actually tell you where I live and work, did you?)
Do not be fooled by the sunny summer satellite imagery! These commutes all occurred within the last 2 weeks!
Patience is definitely a requirement to do the commute I have to do everyday to get to work. That and a sound mind and body.
Every morning I wake up, head over to the local train station, hop on the MetroLink train, and in one hour I'm at the Union Station in Downtown L.A. From there, I drive my car(which I keep parked at the Union Station) to the office in Woodland Hills, which takes another hour...if I'm lucky. I pretty much take the 101 Freeway the whole way, which is ranked as one of the top 5 worst freeways in the nation. Nice!
Now the real fun comes in the evening. I leave work at 6pm and make a mad rush back to the Union Station to catch the 7pm train, so that I can make it home by 8pm. If I miss the 7pm train, then I have to wait at the train station until the next train which is at 8pm. And that means I don't get home until 9pm. And that sucks! That bad thing is...I miss the 7pm train at least 3 of the 5 days of the week.
These past two days have been pretty crappy. On Tuesday night, about 10 minutes into my commute, I knew I was going to miss the 7pm train, so rather than wait at the station until 8pm, I just drove straight home. Wasn't too bad. But that meant that the next morning, I would have to drive all the way to work(since the car I drove home is the one I usually keep at the Union Station). It took me almost FOUR hours to get to work. Un-friggin-believable! I seriously wanted to kill someone. There were accidents everywhere on the freeway...the entire way to work. Why there were so many damn accidents was beyond me. When it rains, that's one thing. But it was clear blue skies. Excellent weather. Perfect driving conditions. Anyways, that was the single worst one way commute I've ever had. And today wasn't a whole lot better. One hour by train and almost 2 hours by car. Ugh!
Remember Michael Douglas' character from Falling Down? That's gonna be me soon. I need to move closer to work...ASAP!
Did my first bike commute today.
Took longer than I thought it would.
Mainly because I took the scenic route and I didn't ride very fast.
Fun though, will do it again.
Waiting for the train to cross the tracks on my morning commute. Flatirons in the background show that the smoke has mostly cleared up today!
First iPhone HDR upload; you can see the ghosting around the train from the multiple exposures.
My road bike in commute mode. This is about nine months old; these days i've got a slightly more aggressive stem on there.
Commuting lives photo project. Commuting to work each day can be a challenging experience and daily I meet hundreds of people, pledged at the same times and same trains.
It's interesting to distinguish how each of us spends these moments differently during the travel: there's who sleeps recovering energy, who reads a book, who is looking forward to the arrival, who divulges his or her feelings in front of a friend but above all, and here it is clear the cultural change occurred in recent years, there's who prefers alienating from it all using their smartphone.
The photograpy raises the curiosity that each of us possesses to a higher level, making the photographer able to analyse the subject even before shooting.
I have spent many of these trips between Monza and Milan to better understand these elements of humanity among the passengers: facial and body expressions, interactions between people, style and good or bad habits.
M24 northbound after work, road is solid cars every day, worse this week with snow and ice. I listen to audiobooks and sip coffee, no rush. This week I am enjoying listening to The Secret Place by Tana French.