I like riding the bus to work. I get to read, play that addictive word game on my Kindle, knit, crochet, or even doze. But I don't like to keep my coworkers waiting whilst my bus is stuck in traffic. But traffic is a reality of my urban existence. Instead of cursing the darkness, I choose to light a small candle to learn about...you guessed it: TRAFFIC! There are many applications for this word, but I'll try to focus on the urban type my bus was stuck in this morning.
We use the word "traffic" pejoratively when speaking of urban road congestion, but it's really quite an innocent word we adopted from the Arabic word, taraffaqa, which means to walk along slowly together.
Traffic is controlled in my area largely by automated traffic lights. There is a flashing red control at the intersection where I catch my morning bus to work. Amazing how many people roll on through. Even more amazing there aren't daily collisions there.
Traffic laws are designed to help the flow of traffic and to establish a code of driving etiquette. We're still travelling in and around vehicles whose weight is mesasured in tons. The rules are designed to protect us from injury as much as possible. When we comply with them.
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