Author Topic: Commuting horror stories  (Read 23819 times)

marty998

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Re: Commuting horror stories
« Reply #50 on: January 13, 2014, 04:24:15 AM »
I thought the same thing used to be said about the M25 that goes around London?

People still joke that one day the 610 Freeway "Loop" around Houston will back up all the way around (61 km) forming a massive traffic jam.


mustachepungoeshere

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Re: Commuting horror stories
« Reply #51 on: August 25, 2016, 08:14:21 PM »
Time to revive this thread, we have a winner.

http://time.com/4466631/bugs-subway-trapped/?xid=time_socialflow_facebook

Quote
A woman trying to sell live crickets and worms on the D train in New York City Wednesday night set off a chain of events straight out of a commuting nightmare.

While the woman asked subway riders whether they would like to buy any insects, she was allegedly pushed by teenagers... Upset, the woman tossed her box into the air, sending worms and crickets across the car.

People were screaming and trying to avoid the bugs when someone pulled the emergency brake. The train then stopped on the Manhattan Bridge and the air conditioner shut off, leaving passengers unable to escape the insects and the August heat.

ಠ_ಠ

stylesjl

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Re: Commuting horror stories
« Reply #52 on: August 26, 2016, 03:40:30 AM »
Time to revive this thread, we have a winner.

http://time.com/4466631/bugs-subway-trapped/?xid=time_socialflow_facebook

Quote
A woman trying to sell live crickets and worms on the D train in New York City Wednesday night set off a chain of events straight out of a commuting nightmare.

While the woman asked subway riders whether they would like to buy any insects, she was allegedly pushed by teenagers... Upset, the woman tossed her box into the air, sending worms and crickets across the car.

People were screaming and trying to avoid the bugs when someone pulled the emergency brake. The train then stopped on the Manhattan Bridge and the air conditioner shut off, leaving passengers unable to escape the insects and the August heat.

ಠ_ಠ
I suppose debugging the subway system is going to take a while...

marty998

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Re: Commuting horror stories
« Reply #53 on: August 26, 2016, 03:53:01 AM »
Time to revive this thread, we have a winner.

http://time.com/4466631/bugs-subway-trapped/?xid=time_socialflow_facebook

Quote
A woman trying to sell live crickets and worms on the D train in New York City Wednesday night set off a chain of events straight out of a commuting nightmare.

While the woman asked subway riders whether they would like to buy any insects, she was allegedly pushed by teenagers... Upset, the woman tossed her box into the air, sending worms and crickets across the car.

People were screaming and trying to avoid the bugs when someone pulled the emergency brake. The train then stopped on the Manhattan Bridge and the air conditioner shut off, leaving passengers unable to escape the insects and the August heat.

ಠ_ಠ
I suppose debugging the subway system is going to take a while...

Look out beehind you! I sense that insect puns are going to swarm around us soon....

Little Aussie Battler

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Re: Commuting horror stories
« Reply #54 on: August 26, 2016, 04:03:16 AM »
Up until recently I was the chairman of an investment company that was based in a tax haven - in order to maintain an effective connection I had to fly in for board meetings. Directors were based in 3 separate locations, and so meetings could only be held in the morning. These meetings often went for only 10-15 minutes.

The only way that I could make it there in time for a morning meeting was to fly in the day before. So I would leave at around lunchtime, and catch 2 flights to get there. After the meeting I would head back to the airport, and then take another 6 hours to get home (usually sometime around midnight).

So roughly 36 hours for a 10 minute meeting. Still better than being stuck on a Sydney train in 40+ degree heat.

marty998

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Re: Commuting horror stories
« Reply #55 on: August 26, 2016, 04:44:19 AM »
Was it Caymans?

Thought the usual practice was to hire a rep from a legal firm over there to be a director and that would be the "connection"....

GuitarStv

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Re: Commuting horror stories
« Reply #56 on: August 26, 2016, 06:19:15 AM »
Time to revive this thread, we have a winner.

http://time.com/4466631/bugs-subway-trapped/?xid=time_socialflow_facebook

Quote
A woman trying to sell live crickets and worms on the D train in New York City Wednesday night set off a chain of events straight out of a commuting nightmare.

While the woman asked subway riders whether they would like to buy any insects, she was allegedly pushed by teenagers... Upset, the woman tossed her box into the air, sending worms and crickets across the car.

People were screaming and trying to avoid the bugs when someone pulled the emergency brake. The train then stopped on the Manhattan Bridge and the air conditioner shut off, leaving passengers unable to escape the insects and the August heat.

ಠ_ಠ

This is pure win.

Tjat

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Re: Commuting horror stories
« Reply #57 on: August 26, 2016, 06:21:31 AM »
We had a terrible snow storm 8-10 years back. I lived in the city and through a combination of the subway and walking, sloshed home. All our senior executives drive and it took them 8-10 hours to make it out of the city (one actually lived near me). After that day, our office strongly encourages working from home during severe snow events. Greatest snow storm ever....

RetiredAt63

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Re: Commuting horror stories
« Reply #58 on: August 26, 2016, 06:47:30 AM »
Snow storms - lots of bad drives.  Hour drives that turn into 2-3 hours with horrible visibility.  And trucks that don't have snow tires and get stuck on the on ramp.  Buses that slither and block lanes.  Regular life.  There is a reason Quebec now has mandatory snow tires in the winter.

Worst commute was the day Missy arrived.  Thunderstorms and freezing rain in early December?  20 minutes in the freezing rain to get the ice off the car, an hour to do a 20 minute drive to the airport, so poor puppy had been sitting in her crate at cargo for ages, then over another 2 hours to do a 50 minute drive, white knuckled all the way as I watched cars and SUVs and trucks enter the median at speed while I was going 60-70 km on a 100 km highway.


talltexan

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Re: Commuting horror stories
« Reply #59 on: August 26, 2016, 07:27:41 AM »
It's easy to focus on these one-off events, but I'm continually reminded of the awful physical damage that three decades of ultra long commutes are doing to my mother.

patchyfacialhair

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Re: Commuting horror stories
« Reply #60 on: August 26, 2016, 07:45:19 AM »
We had a terrible snow storm 8-10 years back. I lived in the city and through a combination of the subway and walking, sloshed home. All our senior executives drive and it took them 8-10 hours to make it out of the city (one actually lived near me). After that day, our office strongly encourages working from home during severe snow events. Greatest snow storm ever....

I disagree. When I was in sales, a snow day meant a snow day; don't come into the office unless it's safe to do so. Now that I'm in a different department, it's an expectation to log in from home during inclement weather. No more snow days. Growing up is the worst.

GuitarStv

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Re: Commuting horror stories
« Reply #61 on: August 26, 2016, 08:32:20 AM »
We had a terrible snow storm 8-10 years back. I lived in the city and through a combination of the subway and walking, sloshed home. All our senior executives drive and it took them 8-10 hours to make it out of the city (one actually lived near me). After that day, our office strongly encourages working from home during severe snow events. Greatest snow storm ever....

I disagree. When I was in sales, a snow day meant a snow day; don't come into the office unless it's safe to do so. Now that I'm in a different department, it's an expectation to log in from home during inclement weather. No more snow days. Growing up is the worst.

I grew up in Northern Ontario.  Every day between October and June had an 80% chance of being a snow day, so everyone was expected to be at work or school all the time.  As long as there was still power on in the town.  :P

patchyfacialhair

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Re: Commuting horror stories
« Reply #62 on: August 26, 2016, 08:51:56 AM »
We had a terrible snow storm 8-10 years back. I lived in the city and through a combination of the subway and walking, sloshed home. All our senior executives drive and it took them 8-10 hours to make it out of the city (one actually lived near me). After that day, our office strongly encourages working from home during severe snow events. Greatest snow storm ever....

I disagree. When I was in sales, a snow day meant a snow day; don't come into the office unless it's safe to do so. Now that I'm in a different department, it's an expectation to log in from home during inclement weather. No more snow days. Growing up is the worst.

I grew up in Northern Ontario.  Every day between October and June had an 80% chance of being a snow day, so everyone was expected to be at work or school all the time.  As long as there was still power on in the town.  :P

This is in Colorado on the Front Range. As MMM himself has stated in the blog, it's usually sunny with only a handful of true heavy snow days a year :) The snow removal just isn't up to par compared to you folks living on the arctic circle :P

Papa Mustache

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Re: Commuting horror stories
« Reply #63 on: August 26, 2016, 09:21:57 AM »
It's easy to focus on these one-off events, but I'm continually reminded of the awful physical damage that three decades of ultra long commutes are doing to my mother.

I couldn't do that kind of commuting for a whole career. I've lived in the 3M people cities and the merely "big" cities. Also lived where snow and ice brought the city to its knees b/c the city was in the south. Have watched people in our circle of family and friends do the huge commutes for whole careers.

All this figured heavily into our decision to live in a smaller town/city where occasional a major traffic snarl adds 5 minutes to the 15 min low speed commute.

I'm like our Depression Era grandparents - making choices so life isn't that hard again. ;)

irishbear99

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Re: Commuting horror stories
« Reply #64 on: August 26, 2016, 09:40:20 AM »
Yup. I survived Honolulu's Carmageddon 2015 and didn't even get a stinking t-shirt.

http://www.civilbeat.org/2015/04/honolulu-traffic-jam-a-perfect-storm-of-everything-falling-apart/

Stachey

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Re: Commuting horror stories
« Reply #65 on: August 26, 2016, 10:19:00 AM »
Not the worst commute but certainly the most anxiety filled one:

Was trapped on a bus as it sat on a highway as a storm cloud /funnel cloud was rapidly approaching.
The bus I was sitting on was parked on a four lane highway along with hundreds of other cars. To the right side of the bus was a concrete barricade, shoulder high, on the other side of which was four lanes of traffic going 120 km/hr in the opposite direction.  On my side of the barricade was the lane I was in, totally parked.  The lane next to us also stopped.  The lane next to that going 50 km/hr or so.  The lane beyond that 120 km/hr.  Beyond that was open fields with nowhere to get shelter in the event of a tornado.  Geez it was horrible to be on that bus that was 50% glass and watching those clouds roll in.

Thankfully the bus finally started inching along and the tornado went a little further to the south before touching down. 

onehair

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Re: Commuting horror stories
« Reply #66 on: August 26, 2016, 10:47:27 AM »
 DC Metro accident 2009
I was supposed to leave earlier but stayed about 15 minutes late to rib a coworker.  I left at 5:45pm expecting to get home at maybe 6:45-7:00pm.  Went down to Union Station and waited..and waited...
Turns out that's when the derailment took place while I was ribbing the coworker and at first they ran trains only to Rhode Island then buses.  I got home at 9pm to a flood of phone calls and the joys of taking the bus to work daily until the rails were up and running.  I am still grateful considering 9 poor souls lost their lives just going back and forth to work school and expecting an ordinary day.

Pooperman

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Re: Commuting horror stories
« Reply #67 on: August 26, 2016, 11:11:36 AM »
Not me, but my dad.

He came home one fine afternoon and was involved in this accident in one of these.

Having quick reactions, he turned a hard right to avoid the actual accident, and plowed into a snowbank. The exhaust system was never the same, but the car (and he) survived.

golden1

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Re: Commuting horror stories
« Reply #68 on: August 26, 2016, 11:39:50 AM »
Quote
My worst commute ever was last year when my company let everyone go home early because of the incoming blizzard. Unfortunately, they did this only after the blizzard had arrived, and it was extremely dangerous to drive.

This happens all the time in the Boston area.  I feel like it's a conspiracy to make all of us burn our vacation time because no one wants to come to work in order to sit in traffic for 3-4 hours on the way home. 

snogirl

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Re: Commuting horror stories
« Reply #69 on: August 26, 2016, 12:22:44 PM »
Commuting?  In Vermont?
My worst commuting story is being late because the farmer stopped traffic to let his cows cross to pasture.
Oh and the first snowstorm. 
Even folks who know it's coming always wait to put their snow tires on.....
That is pretty much it.

Little Aussie Battler

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Re: Commuting horror stories
« Reply #70 on: August 26, 2016, 08:08:03 PM »
Was it Caymans?

Thought the usual practice was to hire a rep from a legal firm over there to be a director and that would be the "connection"....
No, but a similar jurisdiction. We were also navigating bank capital rules, and so no external directors were allowed.

Most people would be shocked by the amount of time and energy that gets expended by large companies trying to minimise their tax.

marty998

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Re: Commuting horror stories
« Reply #71 on: August 26, 2016, 09:16:07 PM »
Was it Caymans?

Thought the usual practice was to hire a rep from a legal firm over there to be a director and that would be the "connection"....
No, but a similar jurisdiction. We were also navigating bank capital rules, and so no external directors were allowed.

Most people would be shocked by the amount of time and energy that gets expended by large companies trying to minimise their tax.

Mmm... a whole industry has been built around advising on the best structures.

Bit of a gravy train for the Big4 accounting firms. They won't give it up easily... it's a tired argument that "capital will just go elsewhere" if there is a crackdown on multinational tax avoidance. It's never going to be the catastrophe that is promised but because it has a sliver of truth the politicians get spooked.


RetiredAt63

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Re: Commuting horror stories
« Reply #72 on: August 27, 2016, 07:58:39 AM »
I grew up in Northern Ontario.  Every day between October and June had an 80% chance of being a snow day, so everyone was expected to be at work or school all the time.  As long as there was still power on in the town.  :P
I grew up on Montreal Island.  Snow is standard in winter.  It had to be really bad before things got cancelled*. When I taught CEGEP, as long as the buses and Metro were running and students could get in we had classes.  Fall semester exams (mid-December) often had students walking in late because of transit delays, but they got to school.  Same for my DD, if the school buses were running she had school. Allowance for a couple of snow days is built into shcool schedules, but mostly they are not used.

*For us the big issue is not snow, it is freezing rain.  It is hard to melt thick ice when the temperatures then fall to -20 to -30oC.  The Great Ice Storm was three ice storms over 5 days, the systems just could not cope with that thickness of ice.

Of course those of us around at the time still remember when the Decarie Expressway flooded 6 feet deep and fire trucks were on the overpasses putting ladders down to people could climb out.  Big thunderstorms came down both the St. Laurence and Ottawa Rivers at the same time and the storm drains just could not cope.
« Last Edit: August 27, 2016, 08:00:56 AM by RetiredAt63 »

Astatine

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Re: Commuting horror stories
« Reply #73 on: August 28, 2016, 05:49:12 AM »
Posting to follow. Luckily I don't have any commuting horror stories (or if I have, I can't remember them).

meghan88

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Re: Commuting horror stories
« Reply #74 on: August 29, 2016, 11:05:43 AM »
She managed to essentially ignore an incredibly shocking and distressing national event and make something all about her and her trip home.  None of us could give two shits about her drive home, we were completely devastated and wondering what was next for the world.  You would think she might have even offered a reflection of what the event meant to our business future, couched in encouraging words to hang in there, but she didn't offer that.  All I can suspect is that she thought she was doing a good thing and taking her own mind off of the tragedy but to the staff back home it came off as arrogant and completely clueless.     

Shades of Michael Scott at Dunder Mifflin.  She sounds like a sociopath. 

BlueHouse

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Re: Commuting horror stories
« Reply #75 on: August 29, 2016, 11:20:43 AM »

I'm like our Depression Era grandparents - making choices so life isn't that hard again. ;)
Perfect!  I love this message and may quote you in the future.

gliderpilot567

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Re: Commuting horror stories
« Reply #76 on: August 29, 2016, 02:19:38 PM »
On my 15th birthday, my parents forgot to pick me up from track practice after school and I had to walk home 4 miles.

Yeah my stories aren't really that horrific

Digital Dogma

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Re: Commuting horror stories
« Reply #77 on: August 29, 2016, 02:35:37 PM »
I was commuting between my job and the local college, about 50 miles round-trip each day which wasn't too bad. At the time I was driving a Jeep Cherokee sport that was afflicted with a terrible case of falling apart due to rust, and things were just beginning to go from bad to worse on that hunk of junk.

I was heading to school after work one day trying to stop at a red light when my brake line blew out, causing me to blow through the light horns blazing and lights flashing to try and warn everyone else I couldn't stop. It was a standard 5 speed so I was able to downshift and slow myself considerably before turning into a large retail parking lot and drifting to a stop in the back of the lot. I had given my family a call, at this point it was SOP to bring the only truck and trailer we had available to pick up the jeep when it broke down. It was an F550 with a backhoe pro trailer that sits about 3.5-4 feet off the ground, and it had a large steel kick plate style lip at the front of the trailer near the hitch. We drove that jeep up on the trailer and it hit the steel kick plate, started rolling up, and juuuuuust missed going right over the top of it before it settled back down on the correct side of the trailer. I had helped chain the thing down, bind the chains, and was exhausted sipping on a bottle of snapple I bought while waiting for help to arrive.

I took one step backwards without looking, caught the back of my ankle on a chain (or more likely, the kick plate at the front of the trailer) and fell right off that trailer flat on my back on the pavement. My drink got tossed next to me and shattered on the asphalt parking lot, lucky for me it didn't end up beneath me somehow while I was trying to break my fall, I think I threw it as I was going down. I had a giant welt on the skin over two or three of my vertebrae where I landed.

We towed the jeep home, I got in my parent's Mazda B, and I drove to my night classes for 4 or 5 hours before heading home. My back was still bleeding from the fall, and my head probably hurt too but I don't recall that in much detail.