Faster than a jammed freeway...
Today, the South Bureau (Photographer Tom Tedford and myself) got up early...really early. Like before the crack of dawn early.
We had to. That's what you do when you want to catch the Sounder Transit train as it makes its first run out of Tacoma.
Astonishingly, other people were up too. A lot of other people.
It seems everyone was trying to dodge the forecasted traffic mess on I-5 by training it to work.
That was cool to watch.
It was like a magical moment in time, the Seattle metro area was not the traffic-choked city with bad memories of crushed hopes for a monorail. It was liberated - free of stalled cars and incessant radio reports of fender benders.
People got out of their cars and took the train - in record numbers. More than 6,000 people hopped the train for the morning commute.
We saw firsthand how people actually looked when they're relaxed on the way to work. There were no hand gestures - no horns - no train rages. People actually looked happy.
So what if they had to pack tightly against one another at times? Who cares that by the time the train hit Puyallup, it was standing room only?
Nope. Most people didn't really seem to care that much.
And just think what that means....if we really, really tried. We could get to work on time, not pollute the environment, share a laugh with the man or woman who may otherwise be a road raging fool.....and enjoy the commute!
Maybe they should work on I-5 more often.