The exhaustion of the urban hustle

A long and tiring day in the City

Winding down to yet another day in the city, exhausted business professionals, shoppers, and children alike, relax while patiently awaiting their preferred mode of transport to take them home. Life in the city understandably leaves persons tired and in need of some form of relaxation.

After disembarking the buses and water taxi, these persons who entered the city along with city dwellers, have come to accept the rigors of a typical day in the city. The school children become accustomed to the rush in the morning to reach the bus stop in order to get a ride to school. Their attention span is constrained, thereby severely limiting their output. The business professionals overtime become somewhat resigned to the ‘eight to five’ lifestyle of having to awake before dawn to be punctual at work. For them, spending at times up to two hours in traffic has become the norm. A long dreary day in most cases at their places of employment follows, then having to trudge their way to their cars or await transport to go home. In comparison, city life for the shopper differs from that of the average person as it is filled with excitement and thrill. Nevertheless, the end of their day is as any other; mired in exhaustion and fatigue.

One of the most daunting tasks of urban life is subjecting oneself to spending hours in traffic to reach the city. Hall and Barrett (2012) lend support to this by stating that city life is affected by the increasing dominance of the car. Additionally, urban researchers, Harriet, Poku and Emmanuel (2013), also put forward the view that economic activity and quality of life is severely hindered by an ineffective urban transport system in terms of scarce transport facilities such as, road space, effective management and sufficient parking space.  Weisbod et al, (2003) state that traffic congestion impairs the productivity of b0th the business person and shopper, through reduced access to job sites and stores, respectively. This monotonous activity also significantly impresses upon persons in the city, a dreary feeling lasting throughout the day, which makes working more difficult, and leaves them feeling more drawn out towards the end of the day.

Each person in the city, be it the business person, the shopper, the salesperson or even the school child; each has their own experience, but for the majority, each day in the city culminates with a sense of relief, only to be subjected to the repetitive motions continuing from the previous day.

References

Harriet, Takyi, Poku, Kofi, & Anin, Emmanuel. (2013). An Assessment of Traffic Congestion and Its Effect on Productivity in Urban Ghana [Electronic Version]. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 4, 225-234.

Weisbrod, G. Vary, D. and Treyz, G (2003). Measuring the Economic Costs of Urban Traffic Congestion to Business. Journal of the Transportation Research Board. Retrieved March 29, 2014, from Transportation Research Record, #1839.

Hall, Tim. and Heather Barrett. 2012. Urban Geography 4th edition. London and New York: Routledge.