Have I Seen A Miracle?

Those that know me, know I’m a fairly religious/faithful guy.  But I’m not sure I had seen a miracle before what I saw last week.

Last week was crazy for me, with a trip to Dallas and two trips to Houston (including one with 60 or so cub scouts for an overnight stay at NASA) in a four day span.   

Out of all that, what really struck me was the trip up I35 to Dallas and Plano.  I always knew that traffic was bad, and I knew the statistics that a major percentage of all trade into the US travels up IH35 through Texas, but I never paid attention like I did last week.  But after really paying attention, I was amazed by how much tractor-trailers dominate the IH35 corridor.

Outside of Austin and Dallas proper (where there were a lot of passenger vehicles), big rigs made up at least 20% of the traffic on the highway.  In some long stretches, trucks made up 40% or more of the traffic, by my counts. 

And they really affect how the traffic flows.  In one instance, traffic was slowed as three trucks drove side to side, and in another, traffic was blocked as  four trucks were driving side by side.  In many instances, the trucks were driving in ways that posed risks to other motorists — speeding, tailgating, making lane changes without a signal, etc.

As I pondered all of it, it occurred to me that the miracle is that we don’t have more trucking accidents or trucking  fatalities along the I35 corridor.  Sure, we have too many.  But from really paying attention to the traffic, it could be a whole lot worse.  And that may be the miracle in all of this.