I am getting a break from business travel, and I am enjoying it. Recently, when I thought I would have at least a four month break, but maybe only two months, an unexpected trip came up. It was a nightmare of a trip because I needed to do all the work I had committed to that week and be in the meetings that were scheduled at the last minute¹My new tag line is to tell people the cloning experiment failed and it will get done when it gets done. I think I need a vacation.. So, I wasn’t looking forward to going.

What kind of surprised me was that this trip was quite enjoyable from a travel aspect. The flight was less than two hours long. I rented a car for the first time on a business trip in years. It was a Jeep Wrangler. I am fascinated with the Jeep Wrangler, and if they would actually make the hybrid stick shift, I would probably buy one and work three years longer. But that thought is based on me seeing the Wrangler from the outside. Now that I have driven one, I want to drive one again. I am not sure I want to buy one²They aren’t planning to produce the concept car with a hybrid stick shift, so I try to get excited about the VW Electric Van, but I am interested in renting one again in the future.

On this unexpected business trip that was very stressful, I found myself considering the various modes of transportation and how I don’t like flying, but I do like vehicles on tracks. In general, I prefer trams and trains over planes and buses. 

Why?

I admit I don’t like turbulence. I also admit I don’t enjoy the sensation of flying very much. However, unlike Husband, I don’t think there is a  realistic chance that a plane will just drop to the ground. One of my favorite aeronautical engineers once told me, “All you need to fly is altitude and wings.” An oversimplification, but a good thing to remember. I also really don’t enjoy being stuck in traffic on a bus on the way to, or somehow worse, on the way home from my job. 

However the physics of flight and the stress of wasted time are not what bother me the most about being on a bus over a tram. What really strokes my anxiety is the realization that I have no control over if and when I will reach my destination when I get on board a bus or a plane. It isn’t just the traffic that might throw a monkey wrench in the schedule. It is also the fact there are many people and situations that could make decisions with the result that I don’t get where I intended to go. This scenario, according to the news, is much more likely than a plane dropping like a rock to the ground. A passenger³other than me could be disruptive and force the flight to divert. A ground stop could leave me on a hot tarmac for hours. A flat tire could make the bus pull over to the side of the road to wait for a repair truck⁴When that happened to me on I-66 two years ago, the driver assured me I should be grateful we weren’t on I-66. Except we were on I-66. That was a little anxiety inducing while sitting on a small shoulder of an interstate with fast traffic passing by. And I was the only one on that bus..

Unfortunately, I must conclude it is the lack of control that really bothers me. The longer the flight, the more time which could pass allowing many different people, from the pilot to the air traffic controller to the flight attendant to the person sitting next to me, could make a choice that results in the trip diverting from the planned course. To me, it is the same with the bus and the driver who might pull out in front of us and I have to rely on the skills of the bus driver to make sure there isn’t an accident⁵See previous footnote on why I have little confidence in that happening..

A train and a tram each have a track. And a track means that even if something goes awry in the execution of the plan, we will⁶Hopefully stay on the expected path. One less degree of freedom to mess with my plans. When I think about it, traveling by tram or train seems better than by bus or plane.

So why am I renting a Jeep for my vacation this summer? While I like public transportation, I cannot deny that the freedom of having your own car is amazing. I understand why we are a car society. I don’t want to give up my ability to decide when I go where. I try to remember that it is a luxury to have that much control over my movement around the world.

I played the lottery last week, and I didn’t win. But, when I was dreaming what I would do with the money and how I would travel around the world, it struck me that first class tickets weren’t my goal. A private plane — now there is an idea worth dreaming about⁷Yes, I know. Carbon footprint. Bad.! 

I think about these things because I am always searching for the why. I don’t think it will make my anxiety any better when I go on the next business trip, but knowing what about the traveling bothers me gives me a chance to decide if the bother is worth the trip.