Time Management
Overpopulation and Your Timeby Jeff Davidson
The world's population is increasing faster than we can adjust resources to handle the higher number of people. This article discusses the resulting overcrowding of highways, airways, stores, and even cyberspace, and the effect this overcrowding has on your time.
Rapid increases in population have a dramatic impact on the pace of society and your life. More densely packed urban areas have resulted in a gridlock of the nation's transportation systems. It is taking you longer to drive merely a few blocks--it isn't the day of the week or the season, and it's not going to subside.
Our population and road use grow faster than government's ability to repair highways, bridges, and arteries. In fact, automobiles multiply twice as fast as people, currently approaching 400,000,000 in comparison to the 165,000,000 registered motorists.
The roads aren't going to clear up soon--it would cost more than two trillion dollars over the next 30 years to repair and maintain the nation's pipes, tunnels, cables, and roads. Thirty-nine percent of the nation's bridges need major repairs. Do you cross a bridge in the morning? Do you experience frequent delays? More than half of the heavily traveled roads in America that link urban and suburban areas are in fair to poor condition. Is it any wonder that you dissipate a good chunk of your time getting to and from work each day?
Eighty-six percent of American commuters still arrive at work by automobile, and 84% of inner city travel is by automobile. Americans drudgingly commute 157,600 miles to work during their working lives--equaling six times the earth's circumference. Commuting snarls are increasing. City planners report no clear solution to gridlock in the next decade, and all population studies reveal that the nation's metropolitan areas will become home to an even greater percentage of the population.
Even suburban areas will face unending traffic dilemmas. If only the gridlock were confined to commuter arteries: shoppers, air travelers, vacationers, even campers--everyone in motion is or will be feeling the effects.
Airlock
If you haven't noticed, airline passenger traffic has tripled since 1980. Concurrently, there are fewer non-stop flights, particularly on cross‑continental trips. Airport expansion trails the increased passenger loads. Worse, all airlines pad their scheduled departure and arrival times--extended more than 50% since 1980 (to appear as if they're not late), while actual air time remains about the same.
When you're scheduled to board at 10:10 a.m., that is when you're supposed to be seated in the plane. Roll-out from the gate is later. Consequently, they're as slow and late as ever, but now they're within the promised limits.
Camplock
On an average summer day, Yellowstone Park has more visitors than the population of Houston. Other national parks across the country are faced with swarms of visitors, making campsites in high demand. While the federal government is making good progress to restore the parks, in the meantime, vacationers have to contend with traffic lines to get in, lines for concessions, and waiting lists for campsites.
Shoplock
If all 258 million Americans went shopping at the same time, each would have 18 square feet of retail space. There is more retail space in America today than ever. Despite the dramatic increase in catalog and TV shopping, shopping malls are always crowded. Waiting for a parking space can take ten minutes, unless you are willing to park in a far reaching corner. Once inside, you have to jostle through crowds to get to shops, movie theaters, and restaurants even on slow days. During the holidays, it's worse.
Cyberlock
With the increasing number of people going on-line, and the inability of major on-line services to meet the increased demand, cyberlock is in full swing. Several-minute waits for connections are common. Cyberlock could easily become a long-term phenomenon as even more people go on-line for longer periods of time, sending and downloading ever-larger volumes of information. What gridlock, airlock, camplock, shoplock, and cyberlock tell you is that it pays to be a contrarian. To avoid the locks that so many others encounter, commute at different times, fly at different times, camp at different times, shop at different times, and get on-line at different times than the rest of the masses.
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Jeff Davidson, MBA, CMC, is a popular conference speaker and author of 28 books, including Breathing Space (Feb 2000). For books, videos, cassettes, or presentations, visit http://www.BreathingSpace.com, FAX (919) 932-9982, or call (919) 932-1996.
Negotiation