The traffic in Baltimore isn’t known for being kind to your patience. To put it mildly, it has a neat way of testing it (but fellow Baltimoreans already know this).
Baltimore’s traffic also changes how your body handles stress, which isn’t something you’d expect traffic to do.
Think about it – one minute you’re moving forward, then you’re stuck yet again. Your foot is hovering between gas and brake, your eyes are jumping from taillights to side mirrors, the radio is on, horns blasting from all directions, and then some random person squeezes into your lane.
You don’t notice your shoulders getting tense; they do.
You might say that this is just life, it’s nothing dramatic. But this is exactly why it’s so exhausting.
Stop-and-go traffic makes your brain stay alert, but it doesn’t give it a chance to act. You get ready to move, then stop, over and over. By the time you park, you’re wired and weirdly tired at the same time.
You brush this off as just another day in traffic, but the emotional effect of it follows you home and even messes with your sleep.
Your nervous system is built to notice change, and that’s constant in stop-and-go traffic, especially in dense cities like Baltimore.
Your eyes (and mind) jump from brake lights to turn signals to pedestrians stepping off curbs to angry drivers trying to cut in front of you. And even when there’s nothing dramatic happening around you, your brain is constantly working to keep track of motion and speed.
That visual effort is hard work, even though it doesn’t seem like that to you.
Sounds add to the pressure even more.
You hear horns from behind, sirens from somewhere up ahead, engines revving, metal rattling over pavement, and of course, construction. It’s not like any of these sounds are dangerous on their own, but to your brain, they’re signals that something needs your attention.
This basically means that you’re on high alert all the time, and your nervous system can’t really calm down or catch a break. And whether you're moving or staying in place won't change that.
You’re constantly on the lookout and scanning everything around you.
You watch for sudden stops, merges, lights that change like they’re crazy, and other drivers who are rushing, hesitating, yelling, whatever. This feels totally normal; it’s traffic, after all. But what you don’t see is that it uses the same mental energy you need for solving problems and emotional control. If that energy is drained because of traffic, you have less to work with for everything else.
If you add a traffic stop or a citation to this, the mental strain gets even worse. It’s not just the interruption itself that messes with you; it’s the uncertainty that comes after.
You worry about what’ll happen, who to talk to about it, and that quiet worry sits in the back of your thoughts. It’s not hard to find a traffic lawyer in Baltimore to help you out, but the fact that it even has to get to that point is more than enough to keep your nervous system on edge.
There’s not much you can do to change the world around you. And you can be the master of your fate, and you can be the captain of your soul. But once you realize that life isn’t coming at you but from you, you’ll be in a good place where you can stay calm and composed more easily.
Here are a few things you can do.
Slow your breathing and drop your shoulders. That’s key here. Why? Well, when your chest and shoulders get all tight, your body doesn’t know what’s going on and thinks it’s in danger.
Loosen the grip on the wheel and let your jaw relax.
This sounds almost too simple to work, but it all sends messages to your nervous system that there’s no danger.
When you try to watch everything at once, your mind gets tired fast.
Heavy traffic usually means you’re checking the rear view mirror all the time, and you have to check both side mirrors constantly because there are so many things going on around you at the same time. You’re tracking every lane, staring at the GPS, making sure there’s enough distance between you and the car up front – basically, you’re overloaded.
Even if you’re under the impression that you’re driving on autopilot, your body and mind are still working full time.
What can help is if you narrow your focus, even for a bit. You can rest your eyes on one steady point or check the mirrors only when things get moving.
Easier said than done, sure, but try not to take the way people around you drive/behave as something that’s directed towards you on a personal level. Because it likely isn’t. So next time someone cuts you off or drives too close to you, you might think it’s intentional, but it’s (very much likely) not intentional at all.
Most of what happens on the road has absolutely nothing to do with you, and when you think about all that with this perspective, it’s so much easier to deal with and not get dragged into that nasty cycle yourself.
Simply knowing that will help you create an emotional barrier of sorts, a bit of distance, giving you enough room not to overreact but breathe in, breathe out, and go on with your day.
The traffic in Baltimore is out of your control.
Traffic that’s out of control (e.g., the traffic in Baltimore), you can’t just make it calm or predictable. What you CAN do is control your reactions.
A commute that’s 100% peaceful is mostly wishful thinking, but that doesn’t mean you have to pull up to your destination snappy and mentally fried. One bad moment on the road isn’t what causes emotional overload. When you get to that point, it means that stress has been switched on all the time, without ever really switching off.
When you learn how to quiet your body, traffic will still be annoying, but it won’t consume you.
