Chinese Traffic Jam So Bad It Makes Me Want To Pound My Own Steering Wheel In Frustration

How would you like to be stuck in traffic like this?  

I live in Vermont, a place not known for its terrible traffic jams.

Since I'm not used to traffic, when things do get snarled on Interstate 89 on the way to work because of a car crash or something, my blood immediately begins to boil.

You can imagine me exploding, then, if I lived in China, where they have traffic jams that boggle the imagination.

The aerial view you see below was taken near Beijing recently, when many motorists were returning to town after a holiday.  Hat tip to Sploid for alerting me to this. 

I don't know if any of the people in all these cars actually made it home.

 

Vermont State Police Resolve Rush Hour Traffic Jam

A Vermont State Police trooper
workes to clear this traffic
blockage (the little turtle)
 on a southern Vermont road last week. 

Those of you who live in the Big Cities are used to the frustration of terrible traffic as you're trying to get to work in the morning

We have that problem in Vermont, too, though sometimes the traffic jam isn't necessarily caused by stupid motorists.

So it was in southern Vermont last week, when Vermont State Police were called to the traffic problem you see in the photo. Police posted news about the incident on Facebook.

The caption:

"Trooper Walker came by this Vermont Traffic Jam yesterday afternoon. After a brief negotiation and counseling session on the dangers of playing in the roadway the offender was escorted out of the roadway."

This inspired some great responses on Facebook.

Some of my favorites:

"You guys are doing one shell of a job!"

"The offender withdrew and had no comment."

"Turtle Lives Matter!"

"He wasn't speeding was he?"

(Allegedly quoting Trooper Walker at the scene,) "Don't get snappy with me!" 

While in Maryland yesterday, Jeff and I encountered the usual horrible traffic jams on the highways. There appeared to be no particular reason for the backups, they just were. The traffic was so bad it made us miss our flight to South Dakota. (We booked a later one)

Now we're in Yankton, South Dakota, where traffic isn't so bad. But we look forward to returning to Vermont when our visit is done, when we'll probably get stopped on the roads in the Green Mountain State by a traffic tie-up like this one.

Maybe if I put Turtle Wax on both the car and the turtle things would run faster?

Highway Traffic Jam Leads To Awesome Highway Jam Session

The world's most fun traffic jam, on I-76
near King of Prussia, Pa. last weekend.  

Last Saturday, a car crash brought traffic on Interstate 76 near King Of Prussia, Pennsylvania to a standstill.  

Annoying traffic jams happen all the time, so this bit of news would be unremarkable, except for what happen next.

Meteorologist Justin Berk was among those caught in the traffic jam. The tie-up lasted so long people started getting out of their cars, maybe out of boredom, to commiserate, or for some air.

Berk said he met two musicians, David Gettes and Paul Downie from the Trinidad North Steel Drums, who were probably going to miss the gig they were headed to, because of this traffic jam.

Berk sets the scene in a blog item he posted after the traffic jam:

"I saw an opportunity for some fun and glad I was able to convince them to break out their instruments right there on the highway. It didn't take much to reach the same conclusion that it would make a lot of people happy and pass the time better than just being frustrated.

With all due respect to the people involved in the crash, we felt bad, but there was nothing we could do about it."

The fun video of the incident is below. It looked like an awesome party. And I like how people who surely had never met before this seemed to be getting along wonderfully.

Note toward the end of the video when traffic started moving again that people were disappointed the party ended and they had to get back in their cars.

Next time I get caught in a traffic tie-up, I hope it's this fun.

Here's the video: