Director’s Notes: Episode 257 - Traffic

A few months ago I traded in my truck. I lived in a rural area of the Hudson Valley for the past many years, and I owned a Ford F150. Really helpful for carrying lumber and soil for garden and woodworking projects. Also for hauling trash once a month to the county dump. But as I mentioned in my last post here, I moved back to Brooklyn this past year, and that F150 was NOT built for the city.

I bring this up because while writing this episode I was thinking a lot about traffic jams and ride shares. I’m a pretty good driver, and I had gotten so used to that giant truck that it wasn’t hard to navigate it through these narrow, crowded streets. I had even gotten pretty excellent at parallel parking it, too. But being able to parallel park a pickup is one thing. Finding a space that will fit a full-size, crewcab truck is entirely another thing.

I still want a car here. Not to commute, but for weekend errands and roadtrips. But the F150 ain’t cutting it. So I traded it in for a compact SUV crossover. A tiny little hatchback, basically. And holy crap I didn’t know what I was missing. I can park almost anywhere now. It’s dreamy. I feel weird still being this close to the ground, but I’m smaller, nimbler, and way safer for cyclists and pedestrians.

Of course, I don’t drive my car to dinner or shows or anything like that. I generally take a train or bike. But occasionally, I use a rideshare or taxi to get where I’m going. And like Cecil’s journey in this episode, I have had many trips in the backseat of a cab where I’m immediately questioning wtf this person is doing. “Why are we going crosstown to the West Side Highway? We’re closer to the FDR.” or “Wait, you’re picking up more passengers?” or “Are you watching YouTube while driving on the Belt Parkway?” (these are all 100% real questions I have asked my driver before)

So like many Night Vale episodes I’ve written, this one is real moments patched together and then warped in a funhouse mirror.

Couple of little notes in this episode:
* We’ve got a return of the blue Kia Sportage, because after that make/model was repeated ad nauseum in episode 254, Cecil wrote me and said “You know what word loses all meaning when said over and over? Sportage”
* We’ve had “what’s up with Nazr Al-Mujaheed” written in our shared script ideas document for more than a year now. We haven’t heard from him since episode 123 more than 6 years ago!
* We didn’t really have any intention of making De Tours a “thing” this season. Brie wrote that script back in the summer, and it was a fun episode. So we found ourselves calling back to it so much that we figured Why Not? And now De Tours is definitely a “thing”

Jeffrey Cranor
November 1, 2024

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