3 ms·

LA is a very strange place to me - I read about all this havoc, but whenever I fly in there and do stuff it seems fairly quiet and almost somnabulent.

• saagarjha 7y ago
  Have you ever been on the 405?!
• donatj 7y ago
  This was my impression when I visited. I was entirely taken by how genuinely drivable the place was. The traffic was all quite tolerable, far better than what I regularly encounter in Minneapolis.
• bsder 7y ago
  LA is quite fine if you don't have to go very far and can stay on local streets. However, if you have to switch enclaves by crossing one of the choke points, you will get hammered by traffic.
• TimTheTinker 7y ago
  Try commuting into the greater LA area during rush hour. It’s really something else. Once I was taking my then-fiancé to LAX for an 11:30am flight. About 2-3 hours into the drive, we were on the 105 in completely stopped traffic. A man in a convertible next to us began to absolutely lose it, smacking the steering wheel with loud, desperate yelling “ARRGH!!” again and again. We decided he must have been late to a mandatory child custody hearing and would lose the right to see his kids—or something equally life-shattering. There’s nothing like LA gridlock to give you a sense of utter powerlessness.
  • HillaryBriss 7y ago
    +100
  • perl4ever 7y ago
    I have never tried to drive into NYC, but when I think back on being there, there were a lot of cars...I guess. So someone drives there, and lots of them. I don't want to, but I wonder what it's like, and just how the people in the parking spaces managed to obtain them.
    • jborichevskiy 7y ago
      The traffic in NYC is bad but I think there is more of a natural equilibrium that arises from the fact that if traffic gets bad enough, some portion of people will switch to the alternatives (public transport, biking, even walking), making traffic less terrible and equalizing everything. People don't really have that option in Los Angeles so it seems everyone is just stuck driving.