If you’ve ever had the joy misfortune of being stuck on North Atherton Street specifically during rush hour, you’re probably still stuck there.

Jokes aside, from the massive congestion of folks trying to head towards Chipotle or Walmart and the unfortunate bad luck we all seem to get hitting every red light along the way, driving on North Atherton Street is literally painful. It’s almost impossible to avoid it, and recent construction for a gas pipeline has seemingly cranked the traffic up to 11.

To put things into perspective, we compiled a list of things that are still somehow more enjoyable than traffic on North Atherton.

A Friday Night White Loop

If there’s one thing all Penn Staters are taught to avoid beyond freshman year, it’s the White Loop on weekends. Overcrowding, cringy “We Are” chants, and the smell of alcohol and sweat are hard to ignore as folks head toward the frats.

Still, a packed White Loop on a Friday night still pales in comparison to the pain experienced in traffic on North Atherton.

Getting Stuck At Gate A

Getting stuck at Gate A on gameday is a horrifying experience. To make matters worse, it’s even more stressful if the reason why you’re stuck is that a drunken idiot in front of you didn’t load their tickets into their virtual wallet.

However, we’d still rather stand in the beating hot sun than need to sit through rush hour traffic on North Atherton.

Trying To Get Student Football Tickets

Chances are, most Penn State students have experienced an actual piece of their soul leave their body if Ticketmaster has ever crashed while trying to get football tickets. Even if you’ve got alarms set and backup device ready, Ticketmaster somehow still decides to rain on your parade

Nevertheless, the experience is still more enjoyable and takes less time than being gridlocked on North Atherton.

The HUB’s Lunch Lines

If you’ve ever actually tried to get a meal during normal lunch hours at the HUB, you probably missed your next class because the line can be that long. To make matters even worse, you need to wait in that outrageous line hangry as can be, practically drooling at all the options just beyond your reach.

Still, at least the people watching and smell of delicious food beat the fact that you’ll come out of our North Atherton drive with a severe case of road rage.

Scheduling On LionPATH

The day we all never need to schedule our classes again on LionPATH will be a very, very good day. Not only is the time of scheduling extremely inconvenient, as for some folks it always seems to fall around Halloweekend or the night of a big football game, but LionPATH is about as reliable as the printers in the library.

But at least scheduling on LionPATH is a twice-a-year thing, while the pain of North Atherton Street is a daily occurrence for some.

A Cold, Rainy, Miserable Football Game

Nothing says joy quite like standing for four hours in the freezing rain for a football game. To make this situation even more enjoyable, if Penn State isn’t able to squeak out a win…well, that’s just the icing on top of the cake.

There’s still something special though about Beaver Stadium, even in all the misery that comes with rainy football games sometimes. At least you’re not losing hours of your life staring at the back of somebody’s bumper while you’re in traffic.

The Basement Line On A Thursday Night

Perhaps it’s the alcohol speaking in this case, but time seems to move incredibly slow while in line for The Basement. When the line stretches the entirety of the block on College Ave., you’re basically in a human traffic jam.

But at least you have something to look forward to, and that’s happy hour deals and drunken dancing. Who in the hell has anything to look forward to about being stuck in traffic?