People are so predictable

I've heard a quote before. "There are no innovative ideas. Just the same old ideas put together in new ways."

Now that I have a true commute back and forth to work (although, I'm sure, commuters in other parts of the country would probably laugh at my use of the word "commute"), I'm amazed to be able to judge human behavior through traffic patterns. And I've decided that no one is really that unique. Collectively, we have the same behaviors and the same thoughts that drive those behaviors - at least when it comes to commuting.

For example, I usually don't have much traffic in the morning. This is probably because I don't have to be at work until 9:00 am. However, I've found that on Mondays and Fridays there isn't as much traffic in the morning. Perhaps because people are less motivated to get to work on Monday and Friday mornings, or perhaps more people don't work on those those. Whatever the reason, collectively, fewer people are on the road on those mornings.

And the commute back on those days has a similar pattern. It doesn't matter what time I leave on Mondays because I never hit traffic - perhaps everyone is busy on Mondays and leaves work at different times. On Fridays, I'm lucky to make it home in 40 minutes if I leave at 4:45 pm. Everyone is ready to get off work and start the weekend.

I left at 4:00 on Wednesday, thinking I would beat traffic home. Nope. Everyone had the same idea.

Whatever the reasons, we seem to have similar behaviors. We go to work around the same time. We leave around the same time. Around the holidays, we have the same idea about "beating traffic". I guess as humans, we don't have much of an original thought in our heads - we're pretty predictable.

Now I just need to find a new way of putting together those same ideas so I can beat the rush hour traffic on I-40.