The Traffic Problem – Redefined
One of the biggest takeaways you can have from the number “42” is that its not always the answer that difficult.(even though it did take millions and millions years of a computing time of the (edit) 2nd most advanced computer to answer it…still) . But after being exposed to TRIZ and Edward De Bono and his crazy hats, what Douglas Adams said makes a lot “more” sense.
When one works in a company that’s situated in the “other” part of the IT heaven that is Bangalore, it’s much harder for one to understand certain problems that run in the blood of every other bangalorean especially the much maligned traffic problem. Till I started making my now-routine weekly trips to Koramangala, traffic to me was like the demon that existed in my house but in the “that” unused room which I never had to visit. And in some crazy way it more like a kind economic stimulant to keep all those RJ’s and others in the radio industry employed than an issue.
But after coming face to face with the demon I have had to change my opinions. And with Murphy’s help, on the day I am late, it would take me 40 min to reach my destination and on others when I try to factor in the 40 min, I reach 20 min early with nothing to do except swat flies for the time I “saved”. Soon enough “traffic” slowly took a prominent place in my list of lunch break and ice break(er) topics.
But then one day it struck me. What is the most annoying part about traffic?
Is it the amount of time it takes or extra time it takes? Hmm…not really cuz if I were properly equipped (cue an ipod or a sony walkman) it doesn’t matter much.
Is it the time you waste just getting out of a signal to be caught again at the next one?
Yes this is annoying, but it’s probably not the most annoying or in a larger senses just a side effect of the main problem.
Then it dawned upon me that it’s the unpredictability that most annoying about the whole problem. It’s the fact that one day it takes 40 min and one day 20 min for the same distance, even without a major disruption like a accident or a fire(?). Plainly cuz the random traffic was more that day or I was unlucky to get caught in all the signals one by one. This brought about a paradigm shift in the way I viewed the traffic. It was no longer about “How to reduce the traffic?” but more about “How can I make traffic delays predictable?” and soon other solutions that I had not thought about till now or did not give too much utility points started emerging. The important thing is for the frist question its hard to find a scalable solution where as the second problem has very scalable solutions.
I do not say that I have found a permanent solution or albeit even a temporary since most my ideas where invalidated by my friend during our discussion. Also I understand that what annoyed me, the un-predictability, might not even be of minute concern to others, but I feel that by redefining the question I was able inject a fresh life to the hackneyed approach existing to the problem.
