It sucks, but you knew that as soon as you read the title. What I intend to bitch about is the manner in which it sucks. We'll start with a geography lesson.

New Providence is 20 miles by 4 miles and a total of about 65 square miles (it's not square so don't spam me with your little a = h x w formulae). Nassau, the main (and only) city on it contains about 150,000 to 200,000 people depending on who you listen to. For a frame of reference, that's about half to two-thirds the size of Regina.

I personally live less than five miles from work. I don't work in Downtown Nassau but you do have to drive past my work to get there. For the zero or fewer of you who read this that are actually familiar with the layout of New Providence, I work on Molseley Lane right behind the City Market in Harbour Bay.

Normally, a drive to Harbour Bay takes about ten minutes, door-to-door. During the height of "rush" hour, it can take forty-five minutes. That's right. Forty-five minutes to drive less than five miles. And the height of rush hour is 7AM to 9AM. This morning, I entered my car at 6:47AM and arrived at work at 7:11. I was in traffic for over half of the distance.

Here's the strange part: When school's out for summer, there's no rush hour. It takes ten minutes to drive to work whether I leave at 6:30 or 8:30. Where, in God's name, are these people taking their kids at 7:00 in the morning? It's mind-numbing leaving at ten to seven and watching morning joggers pass you.

But the problem is, there aren't any kids in the cars. I know because you can always see them when they're there. People aren't big on seatbelts down here so there is always a head bobbing between the two front seats of the cars when there are kids aboard. Anyway, maybe they're all saps like me that leave early to beat the traffic. Or maybe they all have cameras on my driveway waiting for me to leave before they clog up the roads.

Even at its worst in Calgary, I could still make it from Westhills to downtown in the same amount of time it takes me to get to work here. Being from the country, if I drive for forty-five minutes, I'd better have covered at least 60km.

That is all.