S.L.C.

SLC, at least in the US, stands for Salt Lake City. But for now, the acronym might as well stand for Stress Least City too.  Based on a just released nationwide study, Salt Lake City is the least stressful city while Detroit and Los Angeles garnered the worst honors of being the most stressful. The study is based on “unemployment rates, personal financial data, environmental factors, health risks, crime rates and living standards ...” If these studies have any merits (and they should) then Utah certainly boasts - on a consistent basis - high marks for being a pretty, healthy and happy state (re: previous posts).

But here’s an incident that might countermine the findings of the above study in the health risk category, especially if it’s an everyday happenstance. Last week, during lunch, I had to run an errand and I was driving on the I-15 freeway to SLC. Before getting on the freeway, I stopped for a burger and so I was eating and drinking (fruit punch ...lol) while driving. At one point I was doing the outlandish and the unconventional - driving with my knee, a definite no-no on a freeway. But worst than driving with a knee or knees, is someone who drives aggressively and daringly.

I was at this stretch of the freeway where there were seven lanes (one way) including the Express lane. Suddenly a car did a forty degree speedy swerve from the Express (left-most) lane across all six other lanes to an exit. It was an aggressive stupid and dangerous maneuver. A couple of cars did some hard braking but luckily the traffic was moderate. Talking about stress and cortisol levels soaring in a matter of seconds. Whoooh! The stupidity of sudden lane changes just to make an immediate exit is one of my all time freeway pet peeves.

Overall, however, SLC is tame. It’s not as stressful, hence not as risky, as LA, NYC or MoTown.