Gathered Together While Alone

The community we build while sitting alone in our cars

Traffic in Charlotte, North Carolina. While my commute only involves an occasional jaunt upon the Interstate if I choose to go that way, this is a daily occurrence on the highways in and around the Queen City. Each car containing a driver and possible passengers, each living their own individual reality. Photo Credit: Charlotte Observer

To provide a lengthy treatise containing a colossal quantity of factoids regarding miles, hours, passengers, cars, etc. on our roads would defeat the purpose of this writing. Rather, let us look at the grim isolation in which we find ourselves each and every day, despite the fact that we are surrounded by others- a microcosm of the world shrunk down into a crowded commute to or from wherever it is we travel.

It has been said that a man’s home is his castle, but it would be possible to say that the same holds true for our vehicles. Think of them as a less desirable summer cottage that is stayed in nearly every day. We do many of the same things in our cars that we do in our homes, such as eat, drink, talk, rest, think, and create. These isolated spaces allow us to achieve much of what we do in our dwellings, yes including the making of love.

Much like mankind takes steps to defend our homes, we become defensive in our cars- not only of the interior, but often the immediate area outside the vehicle as well, especially while in motion. Our anger can rise precipitously at a moment’s notice, what would have been a friendly wave to a now offending car repurposed sans the four exterior digits of our hand. A simple error perceived as a slight is the catalyst for a descent into blinding rage. Much like our emotions that can balloon out of control at home, our psyche in the car can be altered quickly as our sentimentality rises and falls with amplified movement, the lack of space in the car not enough to contain ever-present feelings that still emulate with the same intensity made greater by the lack of roominess.

While in a car, whether surrounded by others or not, the windows and doors serve to isolate the driver and passengers within- shutting off access to the outside world and others behind locked doors and a desire for privacy. Yet even though many seek solace in commutes of varying length, much like the hasty rise in housing developments and apartment complexes, the roads become exponentially more crowded, our bubbles of conveyance surrounded by others to the point of suffocation. The same rise in dwellings has taken place on our roads, leaving us stifled as we may return home to be surrounded by others who at one point were fellow denizens of the asphalt.

A movement may take place in an attempt to find ourselves with more space, and even though it may be simple to picture open roadways with ample room to move about, we soon find that the commute is peppered with just as many individuals trying to get from place to place. The stifling traffic that we thought we were leaving behind is as bad, if not worse than the place from which we emigrated as others had the same idea. The attempt to escape crowded roadways now enters the same spiral into frustration upon the realization that proximity to metropolitan areas with ample jobs and economic freedom comes with the price of sanity in our commute to the workplace.

Our homes may be the ultimate status symbol- passersby able to discern our place upon the social ladder by even the most fleeting of glances through the window of a vehicle as it speeds on by. It thereby becomes possible to formulate an image of a driver merely by one’s vehicle, whether or not it is in motion. It may be an opulent display of wealth to inform the rest of society of one’s earnings, or merely for comfort and pleasure while moving between one place and another. It must also be recognized that a car may also be less than flashy, either in an attempt to divert funds elsewhere, or due to the sobering fact that its driver may be barely holding everything together.

Cars may also be a direct reflection of one’s permanent residence, the inside of which may be messy- papers and other articles and tidbits of food strewn about, while others may have spotless interiors that showcase a need for cleanliness- whether borne of an obsessive-compulsive personality or a desire to have a clean commute. Of course, the possibility of a dichotomy exists in the case of a clean home and dirty car, or vice versa.

A quick glance into a car may show a single diver, friends, a romantic couple, or a family. Driving and traveling could be done with a smile, or with a countenance of frustration or anger. One could be seen with an expression of angst, and one may be driving with a vapid appearance of ennui as the monotony of the daily occurrence drives one into boredom. Arguments can take place in cars, much like moments of joy between riders. If one were to, in giant-like fashion, remove the roof of a family home to gaze within, the same could be done by gazing into an occupied car. The fleeting glance allowing a snap judgement of those within.

For at least the near future, mankind will continue to locomote about the roadways of the world while contained within a vehicle, and even the largest of modes of roadway transport appearing as tiny specks as we hurtle about the universe. We have all become passengers in one massive rideshare as we complete the same yearlong commute about the center of our solar system with riders coming aboard and getting off at each and every moment, sometimes only known to a handful of riders, and in other moments a departure of great magnitude takes place, as everyone on board pauses for a moment of reflection, that magnitude of which may be great, yet not enough for even a second of pause of constant movement.