5 ms·

I've lived in Los Angeles for the last 5 years and I can tell you that Waze really uses neighborhood routes in the hills, which coincides with the most affluent

by ljd 11y ago

I've lived in Los Angeles for the last 5 years and I can tell you that Waze really uses neighborhood routes in the hills, which coincides with the most affluent residents in LA. Unfortunatelly, Los Angeles is built with 3-4 choke points to get from the reasonably priced suburbs in San Fernando Valley to the companies that pay for $100k+ positions on the west side and mid-wilshire. Waze helps alleviate that traffic and I not surprised that a politician here in LA is so out of touch that he would recommend shutting down a tool most people use to get to work so that the wealthy can have less traffic noise outside their house at 8am. Streets are public domain, and until I'm relieved of my road tax liabilities I intend on using any one I choose.

leephillips 11y ago
Until they put up signs forbidding rush hour traffic for non-residents of the street. At least, that's what they do around here (DC area).
- StillBored 11y ago
  And hire the off duty sheriff (with HOA fees) to enforce it like the neighborhood I cut through does...
- bkeroack 11y ago
  There are a few streets off Sunset Boulevard with signs posted: "Dead end street after 10pm". Makes me chuckle every time I go by.
- berns 11y ago
  And how is it enforced? Do they ask "where are you going"? Can you answer "none of your business"? I never lived in the US but I refuse to abandon my mental image of the free country I always thought it was.
  - tptacek 11y ago
    They pull you over, and if you don't live in the immediate vicinity, you get a ticket. It's happened to me several times in Oak Park, and I live there! You could say "none of your business". You'll get the ticket, and, if its really unjustified, you can go fight it in traffic court.
    - kinghajj 11y ago
      "Sorry officer, I got lost and took a wrong turn. I'll make my way back to the main street."
      - mikeash 11y ago
        Getting lost doesn't remove your ability to read signs that tell you not to enter a particular street.
        kinghajj 11y ago
        But what if you believed that the street was, in fact, the way to your destination (a friend's house)?
        tptacek 11y ago
        This feels like a discussion in which "NO THROUGH TRAFFIC" signs are a proposal, something abstract, that doesn't exist. "NO THROUGH TRAFFIC" signs are everywhere, and they are routinely ticketed. If your friend lives on the street you're ticketed on, you probably won't get a ticket. If they don't, you probably will.
        kinghajj 11y ago
        Well it seems that they're not universally enforceable, which is probably why some people are having difficulty accepting it. http://blog.al.com/breaking/2011/12/no_through_traffic_signs_in_ne.html http://blog.al.com/breaking/2011/12/no_through_traffic_signs...
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
tptacek 11y ago
This is in a sense an argument that rebuts decades (probably more) of urban design based on classism. Good cities are designed to have arteries for cars and humane, walkable residential streets for people to live on. Routing volumes of traffic intended for the arteries to residential streets is abusive. Your argument won't win in the end anyways. If Waze continues causing problems, residential city districts will just vote to put up "no through traffic" signs and start ticketing offenders. Or, like Chicago, they'll keep a strict grid, break traffic up with one-way streets, and put diode-like partial cul de sacs at the intersections of residential streets and arteries. This idea is pretty old; Christopher Alexander writes about it in _A Pattern Language_. I'm a little sensitive about this issue; I live in a decidedly un-affluent part of the Chicago area (I'm on one of the least expensive blocks in Oak Park; the block immediately adjacent to mine to the east is part of the Austin neighborhood. We have kids playing on our street all day, and, because we're right up on two very busy streets, we get a pretty regular flow of total assholes doing 40MPH down our street for shortcuts.
- ljd 11y ago
  I think a speed bump solves your problem. When I have to commute into the West Side I have a 1.5-2 hour drive ahead of me. Unless I use Waze, and I can cut that down to less than an hour. There is nothing quite like traffic in Los Angeles. Also, you are assuming Los Angeles was designed correctly and anyone that lives here for longer than a month can tell you it has some serious traffic problems because of urban sprawl.
  - nostromo 11y ago
    I'm not sure speed bumps scale -- you probably couldn't put one on every residential block. They also have drawbacks, such as slowing down emergency vehicles. I think there are much more elegant solutions for traffic calming. Like this: http://i.imgur.com/Jn78gQY.jpg http://i.imgur.com/Jn78gQY.jpg
    - marak830 11y ago
      Im not sure about there, but in Australia our emergency service vehicles are a width where they can drive over speed bumps without actually touching (ambulances at least), my brother built them for a while :-)
jefurii 11y ago
> Unfortunatelly, Los Angeles is built with 3-4 choke points to get from... San Fernando Valley to... the west side and mid-wilshire. Public transit in Southern Cali is pretty good if you work in downtown LA.

by ljd 11y ago

leephillips 11y ago

Until they put up signs forbidding rush hour traffic for non-residents of the street. At least, that's what they do around here (DC area).

StillBored 11y ago
And hire the off duty sheriff (with HOA fees) to enforce it like the neighborhood I cut through does...
bkeroack 11y ago
There are a few streets off Sunset Boulevard with signs posted: "Dead end street after 10pm". Makes me chuckle every time I go by.
berns 11y ago
And how is it enforced? Do they ask "where are you going"? Can you answer "none of your business"? I never lived in the US but I refuse to abandon my mental image of the free country I always thought it was.
- tptacek 11y ago
  They pull you over, and if you don't live in the immediate vicinity, you get a ticket. It's happened to me several times in Oak Park, and I live there! You could say "none of your business". You'll get the ticket, and, if its really unjustified, you can go fight it in traffic court.
  - kinghajj 11y ago
    "Sorry officer, I got lost and took a wrong turn. I'll make my way back to the main street."
    - mikeash 11y ago
      Getting lost doesn't remove your ability to read signs that tell you not to enter a particular street.
      - kinghajj 11y ago
        But what if you believed that the street was, in fact, the way to your destination (a friend's house)?
        tptacek 11y ago
        This feels like a discussion in which "NO THROUGH TRAFFIC" signs are a proposal, something abstract, that doesn't exist. "NO THROUGH TRAFFIC" signs are everywhere, and they are routinely ticketed. If your friend lives on the street you're ticketed on, you probably won't get a ticket. If they don't, you probably will.
        kinghajj 11y ago
        Well it seems that they're not universally enforceable, which is probably why some people are having difficulty accepting it. http://blog.al.com/breaking/2011/12/no_through_traffic_signs_in_ne.html http://blog.al.com/breaking/2011/12/no_through_traffic_signs...
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

tptacek 11y ago

This is in a sense an argument that rebuts decades (probably more) of urban design based on classism. Good cities are designed to have arteries for cars and humane, walkable residential streets for people to live on. Routing volumes of traffic intended for the arteries to residential streets is abusive. Your argument won't win in the end anyways. If Waze continues causing problems, residential city districts will just vote to put up "no through traffic" signs and start ticketing offenders. Or, like Chicago, they'll keep a strict grid, break traffic up with one-way streets, and put diode-like partial cul de sacs at the intersections of residential streets and arteries. This idea is pretty old; Christopher Alexander writes about it in _A Pattern Language_. I'm a little sensitive about this issue; I live in a decidedly un-affluent part of the Chicago area (I'm on one of the least expensive blocks in Oak Park; the block immediately adjacent to mine to the east is part of the Austin neighborhood. We have kids playing on our street all day, and, because we're right up on two very busy streets, we get a pretty regular flow of total assholes doing 40MPH down our street for shortcuts.

ljd 11y ago
I think a speed bump solves your problem. When I have to commute into the West Side I have a 1.5-2 hour drive ahead of me. Unless I use Waze, and I can cut that down to less than an hour. There is nothing quite like traffic in Los Angeles. Also, you are assuming Los Angeles was designed correctly and anyone that lives here for longer than a month can tell you it has some serious traffic problems because of urban sprawl.
- nostromo 11y ago
  I'm not sure speed bumps scale -- you probably couldn't put one on every residential block. They also have drawbacks, such as slowing down emergency vehicles. I think there are much more elegant solutions for traffic calming. Like this: http://i.imgur.com/Jn78gQY.jpg http://i.imgur.com/Jn78gQY.jpg
  - marak830 11y ago
    Im not sure about there, but in Australia our emergency service vehicles are a width where they can drive over speed bumps without actually touching (ambulances at least), my brother built them for a while :-)

jefurii 11y ago

> Unfortunatelly, Los Angeles is built with 3-4 choke points to get from... San Fernando Valley to... the west side and mid-wilshire. Public transit in Southern Cali is pretty good if you work in downtown LA.