Normally when I drive to work I'm sensible - I keep an eye on the Seattle traffic website and leave work either before the rush hour starts or after it finishes so I don't have to sit in traffic for ages. Today I wasn't. It got to about 4:30 and I didn't have anything else to do so I thought "Ok, I'll set off for home. Yeah I'll be sitting in traffic for a while but my car has air conditioning, I can listen to the radio and just sit and relax. It'll only take maybe twice the 20 minutes it usually does." To cut a long story short I was stuck on 520 for the best part of an hour and it wasn't relaxing because it wasn't just slow it was continuous stopping and starting so I keep concentrating.
If only every driver would just try to accelerate and brake more gently than the driver of the car in front and match their average speed we wouldn't have this problem and traffic would be better all around but no - everyone has to slam on the accelerator as soon as a tiny gap opens up (so that no-one can merge into it) and then slam on the brake at the last possible moment to avoid a crash. Very annoying.
Anyway, next time I am tempted to drive home during the rush hour I hope I remember how annoying it is and don't. Maybe this experience will encourage me to take the bus to work instead.