If you live in a city that depends on public transportation—be it bus, train, or ferry—you know the havoc a simple traffic delay can wreak on your day. But instead of getting angry, one German woman grabbed her knitting needles.
German journalist Sara Weber recently tweeted about her mother’s knitting project, one that she worked on for the entirety of 2018 as she traveled to and from her job in Munich. The scarf is a physical manifestation of her delays, with two rows equaling one day of work (one for the way to the office and one for the trip home). Not to mention knitting is a great way to pass time on the way to work, not to mention reportedly a good activity for improving mental health.
The colors on Weber’s scarf correspond to just how long the delay lasted: bright red signifies a delay of more than 30 minutes, light pink for a 5- to 30-minute delay, and dark gray for any delay lasting up to five minutes. As you can see from Weber’s tweet, there seems to be an especially bleak period for the Deutsche Bahn toward the latter part of 2018.
In a world where train delays are forgiven shortly after commuters arrive at their destinations, this scarf is a great physical reminder of what an ongoing issue these delays can be. Here’s to hoping Weber’s commute time is a little less colorful in 2019.
