Welcome to Baltimore! Get in on Gridlock!

Note to the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitor’s Association: for conventions with over 20,000 attendees, please give area residents a little more warning!

With 50,000 to 80,000 convention attendees patronizing city businesses and restaurants, as well as tying up roads with foot and vehicle traffic, wouldn’t it make sense to let your area residents know with something more than an “Oh, by the way…”? Of course it does. I remember hearing something out of the corner of my ear on the news Sunday night that amounted to "We've got these folks from out-of-town coming in. Can you leave the light on for them?" Shouldn’t the descent of a massive group of people warrant the same coverage as severe weather or breaking news? It has already turned so many lives upside down that it could probably be held in the same category as a hurricane or hostage situation.

During the Tuesday morning commute, the usual challenges of merging and yielding the right of way were evident, but add the additional activities of cursing, riding the shoulder and hard braking made an already rough morning that much worse. Toss into the mix that Russell Street construction is still ongoing and, well…..you do the math.

I could tell from the commuter traffic this morning that people were more prepared for the delays. There was still the gridlock and backups, but you could see people being more flexible, really pulling on their yoga and meditation skills trying to stay calm, keeping at least one car length between them and the car in front of them, trying not to ride the breaks, etc. Of course there are always a few idiots who drive like the normal assholes that they are, hoping against hope that everyone in their way will just disappear. Shame on them and on BACVA: no one got the memo on this one.

I’m glad I had already planned to take Friday off….only one more day of the messy morning commute!

For a full article on the convention and its effects, see http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bal-bz.baptist21jun21,0,2611148.story?coll=bal-home-headlines.