It’s another dreary Cairene day and I am once again sitting in the backseat of a car trying to get from my doctor’s appointment back to my house. As I sit in the –thankfully air conditioned— vehicle trying to make out the lyrics to Hozier’s latest EP, cars flit by me honking loudly, in a competition of who will get to their destination first. Anyone who has been to Cairo knows that Cairo traffic is a staple of the city. It is a beast with a life of its own, one that speaks the language of swearing, blinking and beeping.
Cairo traffic is the reason why many of us are often late, exhausted and drained before the day has even reached its midday point. But what interests me more than the traffic itself, is people’s reaction to the traffic. For some traffic is merely a chunk of lost time, while for others it’s a necessary break in their errand-filled life. It is estimated that the average person loses around 80hrs per year stuck in Cairo traffic. While that is a less significant number than Istanbul or Moscow, it is still a hell of a long time spent trapped in a car. For me traffic has always meant earphones and my favourite music of the moment. I am of the latter variety that views traffic as a blessing in disguise, allowing us to focus on the small tasks we usually brush over, such as catching up on reading or listening to the latest episode of our go-to podcast. For me, time in a car can be spent all ways from meditating to writing a piece of fiction. I have honed my concentration skills as to be adaptable to any mode of transportation from all of my years of living in this crowded city.
Notwithstanding there is something very uncomfortable about being confined to a car. It’s a little like a forced meditation session, wherein the traffic outside is mirrored in the traffic of the mind. Locked in a car, we often find our thoughts wandering to things we could have said, arguments we could have made, or our remaining to do list. There is something about the not moving that awakens a very primal part of us, and it doesn’t help that our lives are quite literally on the line. Our fight or flight instinct is activated, putting our body on high alert for significant periods of time. If I had to wager, I would bet that spending noteworthy amounts of time in traffic raises blood pressure and births headaches, as the concentration required to keep going grates on the nervous system. Humans are made to be in movement and forced (or voluntary) confinement has a way of bringing the lion out of the man. Of course as I am writing this I am aware that I am writing from an unbelievable position of privilege as I a) don’t always have to drive myself and b) have enough money to own a car in the first place. That being said, I believe that Cairo traffic is our collective problem, one which we all go through together.
Today I sat in traffic for at least two hours, my usual treck from the suburbs into town. In that time I listened to two albums, wrote a short opinion piece and seriously questioned my sanity. Even though I try to make the most out of my commutes, today I could not stop myself from despairing. There was something in the repetitive sameness of the days spent in traffic that got to me. I could see my life whizzing by without me having any say in what happens. No matter how productive I make my car rides, I wonder if this is really the way to live. When you can quite literally predict which parts of the road will be stuck, that’s when you know you’re in too deep. .
What about you, how do you deal with traffic?
Do you lean into it or do you push through it?
Is traffic the great teacher of the great divider?
Congestedly yours,
Girl With One Earring
Photo Credit: Akram Reda @akramareda
