Observation

[tn3270]

On Saturday, I was out and about quite a bit. Earlier in the day, travel was by driving and where-ever I went people just seemed so stressed/angry; I attributed this mostly to the Christmas rush made worse by the 2 snowstorms. Later in the day, on the way to evening plans, I took the T into the city, and took a short walk around the Park street/Downtown crossing area. Always liked the Christmas light displays in that area.

One thing I noticed though is although it was the mad holiday rush, people seemed less stressed and happier than those I had seen earlier in the day at primarily driving type shopping destinations. At Downtown Crossing, a lot of people have not driven there. I wonder how much of the holiday stress is made much worse by the hassles of driving and parking. People seemed a lot better and happier at Downtown Crossing.

I grew up in the burbs so much of my life has been car-centric. Out in the burbs getting a driver's license was always top priority when you tuned 16.

At any rate, there could be many other reasons for this but the difference struck me.

Comments

[siderea]

Hmm. I noticed in Davis^2 on Saturday during the day there were a lot of immensely cranky people around. Maybe it was time-of-day related? All the type-A morning people out shopping early on Saturday, and then the laid-back, less upset about being late people went out in the evening.

Or maybe it's just that the people in cars were even more stressed than the ones I saw.