Heart-to-heart with traffic

My Nokia and I are slowly bonding, as I figure out its quirks and get to grips with its sophisticated technology. I’m even starting to like its pulsing light which bathes everything around it in a warm gentle glow.

On Friday we completed a right of passage. Wearing my Polar heart rate monitor my phone and I measured my daily commute through Joburg traffic to work.

Together we negotiated taxis, zig-zagged past construction trucks and made way for the flying beemers and 4X4s. We handled out-of-phase robots, back-routes away from accidents and roadworks.

And over a morning cup of coffee, I had time to analyse the highly detailed maps and graphs that the Nokia N79 pulls together so effortlessly.

Starting off at a gentle 76 beats per minute, my heart rate spikes alarmingly to 180 as I negotiate the thronging streets of Alexandra township with its taxis, pedestrians and potholes. As soon as I switched to Classic FM I appear to calm down, reverting back to a nice, even beat, interrupted only by the frustrations of backed-up traffic (robots not working again) and roadworks (when will they end?)

Independent spikes and the GPS highlight exactly where I’ve had road rage with a taxi (a daily ritual, so a minor spike) and more annoyingly a BMW which typically cut in front without a thank you or acknowledgement that we share the road. This really did send my heart racing — to more than 120. But then my graph relaxes, rolling and undulating to the banter of Five FM (back on, as the traffic eases up) and my frustration at the news, brought into my car world by 702.

The twists and turns of my shortcuts through the gridlock are meticulously mapped by the five satellites my phone seems to have an affinity with as it ticks away the seconds of my life as I head to my nine to five.

For an hour my Nokia tracked and plotted my world, giving a rare insight into the way I react unthinkingly to life in my car — in traffic, my choice of radio stations and eventually to the office.

There is a final big spike as I prepare for the day ahead.