Mommy Diaries: When Traffic Resembles Hell

I’ve lived in this country for over 13 years and loved every minute of it.

Well, almost every minute. I hated the minutes spent in traffic. That practically cuts those years in half. But multiply my hatred of time spent in traffic by two when it’s the time I’ve spent in traffic with one of my monkeys. So I guess that means I’ve loved Cairo for 2 years?

I’m a glass half-full kind of girl. There’s always a silver lining. I like to rationalize the ridiculous and make sense of the crazy… but when it comes to being stuck in traffic with a toddler in a booster seat and a baby in a car seat, that’s just torture.  I imagine that’s what hell is going to be like.

And in case you were wondering, judgment day is probably going to look like the Egyptian mogamma3 where you’re just one stamp away from getting your residency except the stamp place is on a break and the lady behind the window misplaces your passport… but that’s a whole other story. 

So anyways, back to the traffic. What do we do about that? I’ve seen online initiatives where people sign up to carpool… with strangers. I don’t know about you, but that’s not exactly something I’d look forward to. But I’m sure one of our brilliant minds can tweak that idea or come up with something else.

Here’s my initiative, my call to arms if you will, let’s drive to Morsi’s* presidential abode and park our cars in front of his door. And lets just stay there. Nobody moves until he sorts out the Armageddon-like parking lot that has now become our Cairo. 

I obviously have no idea how to manage the mechanics of a bustling city like Cairo, but I’m sure a quick wiki search on urban planning could definitely help.

Here are my humble suggestions:

·      Express lanes for 3 or more passengers

·      Double decker mehwar and da2ery

·      Bus lanes

·      Truck lanes

·      Those signs that have messages about accidents on them before you get on the highway

You see Mr. President? All this and I’ve never had any formal education in urban planning. Maybe one of your appointed ministers should step down and let me show him a thing or two.

*Yes the traffic dilemma was not caused by Morsi, but by previous president(s?)… But what can we do, he’s all we’ve got now.