Lovely article about commutes in America and how this strange surge of people and machines is changing and influencing the way Americans live:
A shower, a quick cup of coffee, a kiss goodbye (if they're lucky), and they're off. Keys are inserted in ignitions, train doors slide open, feet hit the sidewalk, and it begins: that great mass migration from home to work known as the American commute. In its scale and dynamism, it resembles an awesome natural phenomenon—a volcanic eruption or a flood—but viewed up close, it consists of millions of individuals impelled by private preoccupations. They may move as a herd, but they don't feel that they're part of one as they check voicemail, ponder crossword puzzles, or just doze off. And though they may sense that they're part of something big, much of the time they feel acutely alone, even when the subway car is jammed, the overhead bins of the small jet can't accommodate another carry-on, and the carpool lane is bumper to bumper, backed up behind a wreck.
Read the whole article here
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