Let's discuss traffic. Last week we had a Brazilian director visiting and he was amused at how much time we mexicans spend discussing traffic. I explained to him that it was an easy small talk subject, much like the weather for british people. If you don't have anything to say, but still want to start a conversation with someone (especially if you are inside a car) talking about traffic is an easy way to break the ice. We all hate it, we all experience it, we all know what we are talking about and have opinions on why it's so bad and what should be done to fix it.

But I actually don't want to discuss "small talk" here, but traffic. I've been traveling a lot these last couple of years and have realized that, even though it's not an obsession everywhere, it has been becoming a universal problem. People from Japan, England, the Netherlands, Colombia, Brazil, Miami... they all complain about the traffic. And it occurs to me that compared to what it was 30 years ago, it has actually grown  exponentially to such a level that it is actually impossible to circulate in regular hours. I've just covered 25kms from my house to the office in 1:30 hours (last week I did it in 2 hours during a really bad day). On a regular day, driving very early in the morning, I make about 45 mins to an hour. The horror comes when I had the opportunity to drive it when there is no traffic (2 in the morning, for example, which has happened): 25 minutes.

I've fantasized about how great it would be if we could cover the distance we need to travel on a week, during just one night at 2 am and get it done with. And then I've  fantasized about teletransportation. And about a tank-like vehicle that crushes other cars under it's gigantic wheels, or a Batman-Returns-Batmobile that blows cars out of the way... yes, my friends, way too much free time behind the wheel.

But the real scary thing is that it's the same way in L.A., Miami, London... we have to re-think our public transportation services and business concentration in big cities. There's just too many of us now... maybe Al Gore is on to something?

Have a nice week.