Inside track
For some reason, as I was stuck in traffic this morning on my way to work, I was thinking about blogging. I was thinking about how many times I'd followed my normal route, only to discover that traffic had come to a standstill. Not because of an accident or a stalled vehicle, but because the route had changed. Whether it was a closed lane, a lane had switched or shifted or an all-out detour, it's happened several times before. And it pissed me off every time.
You see, here in Houston, the roads are perpetually under construction. Not only highways, but everything from big eight-lane thoroughfares to small two-lane side streets. It's all a mess. I think it's been an influence on me and my recent fascination with the color orange. I used to think it was funny when people would say orange was the new black, but now I can't deny it. It's like some sort of subconcious conditioning. I mean, The Gates in Central Park ain't got nothing on how much orange there is in Houston.
So as I sat in my car, in a daze at the oranginess of the morning, I wondered why people don't know about changes in the roads before they head out the door. More specifically, I wondered why I didn't know. Sure, they report major road closures on the news so people can avoid them altogether, and there's even Houston Transtar to get information out on the web, but it's all related to the highways and feeder roads. What about the little changes?
Why can't I find out if the road two blocks from my house has changed from three lanes to two? Or if instead of a left lane being closed on a road, it's changed to a right lane being closed? One peek at the construction report and you'll see what I mean, but once again, where's the small stuff?
Okay, so let's say there's a busy four lane street where the middle two lanes were going to be closed for a few days. I'm smart enough to know that the highways are traffic hell, so I'm gonna take to the streets, but how do I know what I might run into? Where's that listed?
And let's say I was part of the crew working on the above busy street, and I knew what lanes were going to be closed and for how long. Couldn't I just publish that information on my own web site? Would there be anything wrong with that? Why couldn't I just take the information that I receive from my foreman (be it a location or a schedule or whatever), and give it to the public?
That's where the bigger issues come into the equation. Is that considered inside information? Or a matter of public interest?
Now we've seen people get fired for blogging about their jobs or bosses (Dooce is still my favorite). But we should all know by now, if you ridicule and make fun of the man in public, he'll can your ass. You should expect no less. But I'm talking about something different.
Like a whistleblower, but without the controversy, is it okay to divulge information when it would only aid the public in going about their daily lives?
What if I worked for a auto company and found out that a defect has been found but no recall has been issued yet. Could I, or should I, just tell everyone I know and anyone who'll listen that they need to get their car checked out?
I think this all stemmed from watching Falling Down yesterday. I couldn't help but think of that scene where Michael Douglas happens upon a construction worker sitting on his ass and asks him what's wrong with the street. The whole question of "when do you start helping people instead of the bottom line" thing really got me thinking. So when I was sitting in traffic this morning, I wondered how hard it would be for someone in the know to just simply clue me in on a different route--an inside track--so I wouldn't end up here tomorrow in the same place.
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