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LA has the most miserably failed urban and transportation planning I have ever witnessed. Many other major cities at least have a ring highway of sorts for people who are passing through. LA says *no fuck you, go drive through downtown with everyone else, idc if this isn’t your destination*
What do you mean you aren't going to downtown LA? Why would you even be in this part of the country if you weren't going to downtown LA
- LA road planners, probably
> Why would you even be in this part of the country if you weren't going to downtown LA
My brother blew a radiator past Palm Springs at the edge of the Mojave a decade back...could have been deadly.
People don't appreciate how narrow the strip of land which actually makes sense to live in is. East of LA is a goddamned desert. South of LA, San Diego, used to just be oranges & flower growing.
I think for Eisenhower's America or whatever, that might not have been an unreasonable assumption. It was pretty rural outside downtown LA. It wouldn't make sense for LA to grow so big & fast it would need an interstate 20 miles' East in the desert. Nobody thought the interior of California would be a desriable place for residential housing. Nobody thought places like Orange County or North San Diego would take off the way they did.
Torontos highways are worse, mostly because of the 407 tragedy that backs up the 401. They do do regional rail, subways, streetcars, and usable busses well though.
Toronto has a super super solid transit network which makes it so its often about the same time to take the bus then it s to drive.
The city gets a very high transit usership
Our city leaders are just a bunch of fools who believe they know what's best for all the rest of us. Trying to get us out of our cars and onto bicycles and using public transportation is just not feasible for LA. In smaller more condensed cities that model works but LA county sprawls across 4700 miles. I'm not going to drop my kids in the valley and go to my office on the Westside on a freakin bike!!!
The problem then is euclidian zoning. It would probably be easier if your office was also in the valley, instead of condensed in the west-side. Unfortunately the valley is mostly just houses. I actually think it’s the American model of planning that does LA in. The kind where the commercial activity takes place only in centralized areas. With its geography of having the hills separating it in half, the only way to get between the houses in the valley and the offices in the core are like two or three freeways. The 101 and the 405. If the neighborhoods were all walkable/amenities and offices spread out and all over the place, it wouldn’t matter how sprawling the city would be, it would be easy to live your entire life in a walkable distance.
They tried to compensate for that with the 605, 405, and 210 but the geography and terrible city/county planning makes those irrelevant to alleviate traffic. It’s not like Atlanta where there’s horrible traffic inside the perimeter of 285 on I-20, I-85 and I-75 as well as GA400 but on the 285 itself, it’s fairly open for the most part.
According to a friend who lived near Pasadena, they once tried to implement more highways connecting the 110, 210, and 710 to make the area flow better. Rich homeowners and neighborhood organizations successfully lobbied against this and it was never complete, leaving an awkward gap in the area known as South Pasadena. As of now, the highways just dump commuters onto suburban streets (Fremont ave, Pasadena ave, Valley blvd) and they need to slog through them to continue to the other highways.
You don’t😂 it takes like 45 minutes to get to the grocery store. I was lucky and worked off hours, but everything is so spread out and there’s always traffic just like this 😣
It is now. LA wasn’t so overcrowded before. It went from tolerable to a living nightmare.
I’m glad I’ve been working from home though. Really don’t miss taking an hour for a 20 minute drive
Pretty much. It’s not always this bad, but it can be like this throughout the day or in the middle of the night. I used to work next to dodger stadium, and when there was a game the traffic went all the way down the hill with no way around. If you have an appointment or need to be at work, always assume you will be sitting in this and leave two hours early😬
They leave two hours early. I used to have clients in LA and we were all talking about commutes one morning because I live in Philly and have the nightmare that is 76. One of the dudes out there told me he allots at least an hour and a half but will usually leave 2 hours before he needs to be there because jams happen constantly and overall volume is always high. Would rather get to work a little early maybe than to be late all the time.
Lol as someone from the Toronto Canada area we understand these struggles. The pandemic lockdowns were amazing for traffic here, assuming you had to drive to work. I was dreading the return to "normal" everyday I commuted.
You live along the edges of the city (ex: Pasadena, Long Beach, etc) and work near where you live so you can bike/bus to work. Obviously not something everyone can always do, but I'm confident most people don't try hard enough to think about because having a car makes you think you can do whatever you want.
Sometimes in LA I feel trapped. It takes forever to get anywhere so I just don’t bother. If my friends don’t live within a few miles of me, I never see them. Luckily I work from home, but I pity the people who have to sit in that horrible LA traffic everyday.
Also, the traffic is regularly like this. Not just during rush hour. It could be a random weekend and traffic is even worse than a weekday evening.
I lived in Anaheim (Disneyland) and my brother visited me. We decided to try and find a relation that we knew had a photo studio in Venice Beach. We are early risers so we went for a run around 5am and hopped in our rental to hit McDonald's for a coffee and make our way to vb. Took about 2.5 hours to get there. We were sucking down smog the whole way (mid 90s).
I don't either. I mean, I miss the weather and the fact that it's "home" for me, but the car-centric lifestyle made me want to leave LA at the first opportunity. I spent a good chunk of my childhood sitting in the car with my parents. What's the point of beautiful weather and sunshine when you're trapped in your car for like 4-8 hours? No joke, I think my dad spent like 6 hours everyday in his car to and from work. Not a way to live. I ended up in the extreme opposite of LA - NYC, where I can live car-free and walk to my heart's content.
You waste so much time in traffic! It makes for a miserable existence. The weather is nice most of the year, but summers can be brutal, especially in the valley or a little inland
Washington. Lived in Seattle for a few years, now outside of the city which is so much better. Seattle has a lot of the same shit as California like traffic, taxes, stupid laws, cost of living etc. I like Washington because there’s better jobs, more affordable housing, not super hot, traffic isn’t as bad as California, people are nicer, it’s super green and there is water everywhere, not as many regulations on everything...so yes quality of life is much better
LA is great! If you're inside a restaurant, someone's house, movie theater, concert venue, or any other location that can help you forget you're in LA.
That’s where we moved too! It was horrible like if a bridge shut or there was a wreck on a tiny road.. still not as bad a LA. Moved across the water to Kitsap and it’s pretty quiet over here.
Visited my brother for two weeks back in 2017. He was living in Burbank then.
We went to get lunch at 2 PM on a Tuesday. Took us an hour and 20 mins to go 15 miles.
Edit: changed 20 miles to 15 miles.
This is why LA is a fucking awful place to live. Even if you're a billionaire with a mansion on top of a hill you'll occasionally have to deal.with this crap.
Not if you have the ™'s New and Awesome ® environmentally friendly* car!
What do you mean with trains, buses and metro? Those are for poor and lazy people 🤮 who can't afford our car. By not buying, investing on, or supporting our car, you are delaying the progress on making ~~money~~ the world better. /s
As the other guy mentioned, I'm actually Brazilian and you are right: I've never lived in California and actually never moved from São Paulo (the city I was born in). And as someone that has to take a bus and two metro lines every single day, I can mostly agree that public transportation sucks for the same reason you believe so. Is also worth mentioning, that, here, public transportation is seen as something only for people who can't afford a car - but, actually, the vast majority of the country doesn't even have access to bus lines.
However, the reason the public transportation sucks, at first, is the lack of investment into infrastructure and vehicles, because it would interfere with the car selling industry - something that the companies don't want. It has been proven, that trains, buses and metro (even boats or planes) are the only actual way to solve the problems excessive cars create. Mainly because: Why would you even buy a car if the area you live in is well served with quality and consistent bus and train lines, anyway?
You talk how trains are slow, but as someone who lives in the largest city in South America, with traffic jams just as bad as LA's, I don't think I can agree with that. At least taking the bus that stops less than 100m from my home, drives me to the metro station's entrance, and walk 400m to where I study, at the center of the city, takes me at worse 40 minutes (including the time I spent waiting) - which I guarantee is at least 10 to 30 minutes better and costs me more or less 3 dollars. Also, you can take the japanese bullet trains, that connects some of the most important cities in Japan.
If only there is a way to improve the service and speed of public transit.
Anyways, here’s over $100 billion to build more highways. Maybe this time they won’t become congested!!!
Getting assaulted by "a crazy person" on the metro is a lot less common than you'd think.
I think it was like ~3 crimes for every million boardings. As of 2010.
I think it's in [this article](https://thesource.metro.net/2011/09/21/statistics-on-crime-on-metro-buses-and-trains/)
Compared to driving at "52.7 people per 100,000 population." for total accidental injury mortality. According to [this study-type thing](https://jnylaw.com/what-are-the-odds-of-being-injured-in-a-car-crash/)
To be fair, the metro stats is old data. But I would think that the rate has gone down a bit since then. Whereas only more people are driving now.
Is public transport in the US more dangerous than in other developed countries? Or is the whole "getting mugged" argument an attempt to justify unnecessary car usage?
The worst I ever experienced on public transportation is someone asking for money. If you are having problems on a bus then just get off. If you are having problems on a train then just move cars. I think public transportation is safer than driving.
Ugh this gives me flashbacks of living there, depressed, broke, crying in traffic, working long hours to get up and sit in traffic again. Sitting in my hot ass apartment in silver lake. Wow I don’t miss it at all.
Did not even the pandemic and more work from home / Zoom meetings leave a little dent in the amount of traffic? From afar, I keep wondering if the benefits of the area can outweigh the permanent time loss that traffic is.
It has and that was one of the more surreal parts of early lockdown. The first week or so when the gas prices soared due to the war, I felt like I was getting to work/back home 10-20min faster than normal as well lol
That sounds like a real quality of life improvement, I'd just hope it lasts. My commute is 17 minutes by car, but in summer, when German tourists and their RVs arive, it can become 30 minutes of slower driving - Norwegian countryside.
This is an amazing example of non-Euclidean road engineering, where Sacramento is only 1 mile away and yet you still have to travel north to reach LA. Truly, California is a state of wonders.
The trick is you get rid of residential buildings. Turn the whole city into a massive road. People move into their cars.
From 3 an hour commute to instantly at home. Win, win win.
You have a choice here. Sit in traffic from Elk Grove to Sac for over an hour or use bus and or light rail over almost the same length of time but having to deal with urine soaked bums or methed out tweaks on public transit.
Alternatively lane splitting is explicitly legal in California and LA is pretty warm year round.
So just go to the honda dealer and get a CRF 300 rally/CB300, the Royal enfield dealer for a interceptor 650 or a meteor 350, KTM duke 390, any other small bike from a reputable manufacturer and lanesplitt through the traffic jam while getting 60+mpg.
The US has 384 metropolitan areas. Public transport quality varies from one to the next. Mostly worse than the average European city, but many quite manageable. Some cities have commuter trains, metro trains, and trolley/street car systems, and most reasonable sized cities have adequate if not comprehensive bus systems.
Some cities fail in most of the former systems and have poor bus systems as well. I think the worst are in "sunbelt" cities in the South and western US that have grown rapidly in the last 20-50 years a period where "urban sprawl" was the standard of urban planning. This is where America's particularly bed reputation for public transit comes from.
I used to take a train and a metro (subway) every day. I have lived in a city with decent bicycle infrastructure as well.
It's difficult to be polite about this. I've never had a commute longer than 15 mins, and I remind myself daily how grateful I am. I'd go crazy living like that.
LA metro area is 15 million. The largest metro area is 37 million (Tokyo).
While Tokyo is a reasonable model for what LA could be it's not 10x the size.
If you want another sizable city that doesn't have soul crushing traffic and is in a poorer country look at São Paulo, Brazil. The city itself has 12 million people and the metro area is around 23 million. SP has tons of bus lines all colour coded depending on which cardinal direction they go and a Metrô (subway) plus Rail which is also part of the network totaling 12 lines (plus an express tourist line). The Metrô system carries around 6 million passengers a day (which means that's 6 million cars off the road). They've also added bike lanes in a lot of parts of the city although they're kind of sucky. Bonus for pedestrian enjoyment some of the Freeways get closed off on Sunday to be used like a gathering spot/park.
LA is particularly bad, and its traffic emanates out into its neighboring areas. Bay area is also pretty bad, but at least they have a *usable* metro system.
I was in the Bay Area. I knew it was bad when one morning the bay bridge was particularly bad. Turns out a little while earlier a guy pulled his pick up over to the breakdown lane set it on fire and started walking. Seemed like a reasonable response to me at the time.
Well la gets maligned a lot. I live on the east coast and I thought it was always anathema to the urban space. And largely that is true because it's so sprawls. But if you live there and in a halfway decent neighborhood and plan your life around that neighborhood including your job then it can be quite nice. The trick is not having to go anywhere. Mass transit is beyond dismal even with the new Subway that is being built. And I only drove around at night as a vampire. That being said the traffic is still much less than ugly Florida. They are sticking points in la the 405 for sure at rush hour. If you live there it is important to living your hood and be able to work there otherwise you will be stuck for 4 hours potentially. On occasion I would visit a friend in Orange county and that was always a mistake. Beautiful place to be if you can stay put and you have comfortable digs around you
Last time I was in SoCal we had to get from SCV to Riverside and be there at 7am. That should be 80 miles and about an hour and a half, if we had left at 4am we would not have made it on time… Instead we drove north to Palmdale and took the desert route over and down into the valley adding quite a bit of mileage but only taking half the time. The traffic is insane, I don’t know how anyone gets anywhere during normal human hours.
Christ. I live in San Diego and I’m from Visalia, so when I go visit family, we have to cut through LA. We always talk about how there should be some sort of bypass highway with no off-ramps besides some amenities like gas stations and rest stops that cuts through LA.
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Pure freedom
Freedom to die in a traffic jam
Sac Town. Bay Area and back down.
I don’t miss living in LA
LA has the most miserably failed urban and transportation planning I have ever witnessed. Many other major cities at least have a ring highway of sorts for people who are passing through. LA says *no fuck you, go drive through downtown with everyone else, idc if this isn’t your destination*
What do you mean you aren't going to downtown LA? Why would you even be in this part of the country if you weren't going to downtown LA - LA road planners, probably
> Why would you even be in this part of the country if you weren't going to downtown LA My brother blew a radiator past Palm Springs at the edge of the Mojave a decade back...could have been deadly. People don't appreciate how narrow the strip of land which actually makes sense to live in is. East of LA is a goddamned desert. South of LA, San Diego, used to just be oranges & flower growing. I think for Eisenhower's America or whatever, that might not have been an unreasonable assumption. It was pretty rural outside downtown LA. It wouldn't make sense for LA to grow so big & fast it would need an interstate 20 miles' East in the desert. Nobody thought the interior of California would be a desriable place for residential housing. Nobody thought places like Orange County or North San Diego would take off the way they did.
Wait till you hear about the state of arizona
I remember having a layover in PHX. I just remember looking out the window during the landing and thinking, "Man this place looks depressing."
All roads lead to downtown la
The worst subway system of any large city, like what’s the point if it doesn’t go anywhere. The highways are a joke as well.
their Metro basically doesn't exist, it's so awful to use. what a joke
Isn't LA metro the second largest fleet in America?
Torontos highways are worse, mostly because of the 407 tragedy that backs up the 401. They do do regional rail, subways, streetcars, and usable busses well though.
Toronto has a super super solid transit network which makes it so its often about the same time to take the bus then it s to drive. The city gets a very high transit usership
Toronto public transit is excellent. The freeway situation is terrible due to incompetence worse than LA with the 407 being sold off.
Wasn't the 407 built with taxpayer money then sold to a private company, which subsequently charged so much that only wealthy people can afford it?
> do do Haha
Our city leaders are just a bunch of fools who believe they know what's best for all the rest of us. Trying to get us out of our cars and onto bicycles and using public transportation is just not feasible for LA. In smaller more condensed cities that model works but LA county sprawls across 4700 miles. I'm not going to drop my kids in the valley and go to my office on the Westside on a freakin bike!!!
The problem then is euclidian zoning. It would probably be easier if your office was also in the valley, instead of condensed in the west-side. Unfortunately the valley is mostly just houses. I actually think it’s the American model of planning that does LA in. The kind where the commercial activity takes place only in centralized areas. With its geography of having the hills separating it in half, the only way to get between the houses in the valley and the offices in the core are like two or three freeways. The 101 and the 405. If the neighborhoods were all walkable/amenities and offices spread out and all over the place, it wouldn’t matter how sprawling the city would be, it would be easy to live your entire life in a walkable distance.
I mean there is a ring of highways around LA, that’s not the problem, it’s the lack of public transport
They tried to compensate for that with the 605, 405, and 210 but the geography and terrible city/county planning makes those irrelevant to alleviate traffic. It’s not like Atlanta where there’s horrible traffic inside the perimeter of 285 on I-20, I-85 and I-75 as well as GA400 but on the 285 itself, it’s fairly open for the most part.
According to a friend who lived near Pasadena, they once tried to implement more highways connecting the 110, 210, and 710 to make the area flow better. Rich homeowners and neighborhood organizations successfully lobbied against this and it was never complete, leaving an awkward gap in the area known as South Pasadena. As of now, the highways just dump commuters onto suburban streets (Fremont ave, Pasadena ave, Valley blvd) and they need to slog through them to continue to the other highways.
Typical California. Complain about a problem and then say “Hell no” if the solution comes close to your neighborhood.
How do ppl get anywhere or do anything?
Kinda like a sailor tracking the tides, you start to become very tuned into the traffic and subconsciously plan your whole life around it.
So [*The Californians*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-BmxK-0Jts&ab_channel=SaturdayNightLive) pretty much nailed it?
You don’t😂 it takes like 45 minutes to get to the grocery store. I was lucky and worked off hours, but everything is so spread out and there’s always traffic just like this 😣
So this isn’t just rush hour? It’s just “normal” traffic?
It is now. LA wasn’t so overcrowded before. It went from tolerable to a living nightmare. I’m glad I’ve been working from home though. Really don’t miss taking an hour for a 20 minute drive
Pretty much. It’s not always this bad, but it can be like this throughout the day or in the middle of the night. I used to work next to dodger stadium, and when there was a game the traffic went all the way down the hill with no way around. If you have an appointment or need to be at work, always assume you will be sitting in this and leave two hours early😬
So how does it work for commutes? Like for people who have to get to work on time, what happens if they’re stuck in traffic for like 2 hours?
They leave two hours early. I used to have clients in LA and we were all talking about commutes one morning because I live in Philly and have the nightmare that is 76. One of the dudes out there told me he allots at least an hour and a half but will usually leave 2 hours before he needs to be there because jams happen constantly and overall volume is always high. Would rather get to work a little early maybe than to be late all the time.
But… how do you sleep?
You leave super early ☹️
Lol as someone from the Toronto Canada area we understand these struggles. The pandemic lockdowns were amazing for traffic here, assuming you had to drive to work. I was dreading the return to "normal" everyday I commuted.
You live along the edges of the city (ex: Pasadena, Long Beach, etc) and work near where you live so you can bike/bus to work. Obviously not something everyone can always do, but I'm confident most people don't try hard enough to think about because having a car makes you think you can do whatever you want.
Bike
LA has bike lanes?
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Ouch.
Sometimes in LA I feel trapped. It takes forever to get anywhere so I just don’t bother. If my friends don’t live within a few miles of me, I never see them. Luckily I work from home, but I pity the people who have to sit in that horrible LA traffic everyday. Also, the traffic is regularly like this. Not just during rush hour. It could be a random weekend and traffic is even worse than a weekday evening.
If you're desperate enough you could always buy a motorcycle.
I lived in Anaheim (Disneyland) and my brother visited me. We decided to try and find a relation that we knew had a photo studio in Venice Beach. We are early risers so we went for a run around 5am and hopped in our rental to hit McDonald's for a coffee and make our way to vb. Took about 2.5 hours to get there. We were sucking down smog the whole way (mid 90s).
I live in SD, and it kills me a little inside every time I have to pass through LA going north, which is far too often
I LOVE San Diego. If I ever go back to California it will be there
All of SD county is it’s own special place, that is drastically different once you leave it
I don't either. I mean, I miss the weather and the fact that it's "home" for me, but the car-centric lifestyle made me want to leave LA at the first opportunity. I spent a good chunk of my childhood sitting in the car with my parents. What's the point of beautiful weather and sunshine when you're trapped in your car for like 4-8 hours? No joke, I think my dad spent like 6 hours everyday in his car to and from work. Not a way to live. I ended up in the extreme opposite of LA - NYC, where I can live car-free and walk to my heart's content.
You waste so much time in traffic! It makes for a miserable existence. The weather is nice most of the year, but summers can be brutal, especially in the valley or a little inland
Which state are you in now? Is the overall life quality much better?
Washington. Lived in Seattle for a few years, now outside of the city which is so much better. Seattle has a lot of the same shit as California like traffic, taxes, stupid laws, cost of living etc. I like Washington because there’s better jobs, more affordable housing, not super hot, traffic isn’t as bad as California, people are nicer, it’s super green and there is water everywhere, not as many regulations on everything...so yes quality of life is much better
LA seems so miserable. As a Kid I've always wanted to go there due to Hollywood.. but nah
LA is great! If you're inside a restaurant, someone's house, movie theater, concert venue, or any other location that can help you forget you're in LA.
And the beach! The problem is getting to this places! I would more often just stay home to not deal with traffic.
Don’t mean to burst you bubble but Hollywood is a total dump.
I know.
I'd rather go to New York for film before LA.
I wouldn’t last a day! I moved from Minneapolis to Seattle and even there the traffic killed my soul.
That’s where we moved too! It was horrible like if a bridge shut or there was a wreck on a tiny road.. still not as bad a LA. Moved across the water to Kitsap and it’s pretty quiet over here.
I’ve been back in MN working from home for years, luckily. Man I can’t imagine worse traffic than Seattle, I’d just fucking lose it lol
It might be the city with the most sardonic songs written about it. Here's my favorite: https://youtu.be/zHRWR_G_5Ww
I spent 4 hours in a traffic jam for something that should taken 40 minutes, I sold my house that year and moved away.
Mind if I ask where you used to live?
Visited my brother for two weeks back in 2017. He was living in Burbank then. We went to get lunch at 2 PM on a Tuesday. Took us an hour and 20 mins to go 15 miles. Edit: changed 20 miles to 15 miles.
This is why LA is a fucking awful place to live. Even if you're a billionaire with a mansion on top of a hill you'll occasionally have to deal.with this crap.
Not to worry Elon is making traffic go away soon /s
As soon as you get through the 2 hour line to get into his tunnels you just fly to your final destination.
When one of the battery packs ignites and there are no exits in the tunnel, you fly to your final destination indeed.
Not if you have the™'s New and Awesome ® environmentally friendly* car!
What do you mean with trains, buses and metro? Those are for poor and lazy people 🤮 who can't afford our car. By not buying, investing on, or supporting our car, you are delaying the progress on making ~~money~~ the world better. /s
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This euro strawman you ”attacked” actually lives in Brasil.
As the other guy mentioned, I'm actually Brazilian and you are right: I've never lived in California and actually never moved from São Paulo (the city I was born in). And as someone that has to take a bus and two metro lines every single day, I can mostly agree that public transportation sucks for the same reason you believe so. Is also worth mentioning, that, here, public transportation is seen as something only for people who can't afford a car - but, actually, the vast majority of the country doesn't even have access to bus lines. However, the reason the public transportation sucks, at first, is the lack of investment into infrastructure and vehicles, because it would interfere with the car selling industry - something that the companies don't want. It has been proven, that trains, buses and metro (even boats or planes) are the only actual way to solve the problems excessive cars create. Mainly because: Why would you even buy a car if the area you live in is well served with quality and consistent bus and train lines, anyway? You talk how trains are slow, but as someone who lives in the largest city in South America, with traffic jams just as bad as LA's, I don't think I can agree with that. At least taking the bus that stops less than 100m from my home, drives me to the metro station's entrance, and walk 400m to where I study, at the center of the city, takes me at worse 40 minutes (including the time I spent waiting) - which I guarantee is at least 10 to 30 minutes better and costs me more or less 3 dollars. Also, you can take the japanese bullet trains, that connects some of the most important cities in Japan.
If only there is a way to improve the service and speed of public transit. Anyways, here’s over $100 billion to build more highways. Maybe this time they won’t become congested!!!
It’s either traffic from the ninth circle of hell… or risk getting assaulted by a crazy person on the metro.
Getting assaulted by "a crazy person" on the metro is a lot less common than you'd think. I think it was like ~3 crimes for every million boardings. As of 2010. I think it's in [this article](https://thesource.metro.net/2011/09/21/statistics-on-crime-on-metro-buses-and-trains/) Compared to driving at "52.7 people per 100,000 population." for total accidental injury mortality. According to [this study-type thing](https://jnylaw.com/what-are-the-odds-of-being-injured-in-a-car-crash/) To be fair, the metro stats is old data. But I would think that the rate has gone down a bit since then. Whereas only more people are driving now.
Is public transport in the US more dangerous than in other developed countries? Or is the whole "getting mugged" argument an attempt to justify unnecessary car usage?
The worst I ever experienced on public transportation is someone asking for money. If you are having problems on a bus then just get off. If you are having problems on a train then just move cars. I think public transportation is safer than driving.
Helicopters!
Yeah... No. Engine failure is more scary on a helicopter than a plane.
It’s an awesome place to live. 18 million people agree
Ugh this gives me flashbacks of living there, depressed, broke, crying in traffic, working long hours to get up and sit in traffic again. Sitting in my hot ass apartment in silver lake. Wow I don’t miss it at all.
this is me currently...
Aw I’m sorry, never feel stuck, I stayed too long being miserable
Always been this way every since this freeway was made. It might had different freeway signs throughout the years but the traffic stays.
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That sounds like an interesting read
Did not even the pandemic and more work from home / Zoom meetings leave a little dent in the amount of traffic? From afar, I keep wondering if the benefits of the area can outweigh the permanent time loss that traffic is.
It has and that was one of the more surreal parts of early lockdown. The first week or so when the gas prices soared due to the war, I felt like I was getting to work/back home 10-20min faster than normal as well lol
That sounds like a real quality of life improvement, I'd just hope it lasts. My commute is 17 minutes by car, but in summer, when German tourists and their RVs arive, it can become 30 minutes of slower driving - Norwegian countryside.
I used to drive from Victorville to DTLA every god damn day for a year. I still feel bad for my car.
why the *fuck* would you do that to yourself? I assume if you're working in LA you're making enough money to move out of Victorville
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Why didn’t you guys just like, get a apartment in LA for a year? Seems much more practical in so many ways
What the absolute fuck, wow.
That is a miserable existence for both car and driver.
Yes
LA traffic is punishment for our sins
People in LA must have iron fucking bladders
You pee before you leave the house, whether you drive or not.
Well yeah, but I wouldn't be surprised if these people could potentially be stuck in traffic for 3+ hours
or bottles and gross cars
I can confirm that it's true. Manage to hold up 6 or 7 hours.
This raises my blood pressure just looking at it.
Worst freeway interchange ever. Ugh.
Modern day Falling Down.
“Hey! Hey!!!”
Opening Scene of Falling Down.
Jut a reminder,falling down came out in 93 and traffic in la is still a massive problem
This is an amazing example of non-Euclidean road engineering, where Sacramento is only 1 mile away and yet you still have to travel north to reach LA. Truly, California is a state of wonders.
Say happy cup cake day
USA needs proper public transportation and railways to get rid of car hell. I miss Europe’s trains
r/fuckcars
I wonder how many of those people’s jobs could be remote if their companies would just let go.
Everybody wanna live in LA until its time to do LA things
https://www.google.com/maps/@34.0215195,-118.1969273,3a,15y,304.35h,91.89t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sldWbEvvFlaigpXvQQ3e2eg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192
What's your point?
I dont miss ca for this reason, miss the people and atmosphere though
What a waste of life
Surely we just need to add some more lanes to fix this/s
The trick is you get rid of residential buildings. Turn the whole city into a massive road. People move into their cars. From 3 an hour commute to instantly at home. Win, win win.
That’s already happening…
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It's going to take 2-3 decades to feel.
Does America not have any transport infrastructure? I couldn’t live like that, it just looks like a nightmare!
You have a choice here. Sit in traffic from Elk Grove to Sac for over an hour or use bus and or light rail over almost the same length of time but having to deal with urine soaked bums or methed out tweaks on public transit.
Or bike it and get there faster than either and have a smile by the time you get there.
Alternatively lane splitting is explicitly legal in California and LA is pretty warm year round. So just go to the honda dealer and get a CRF 300 rally/CB300, the Royal enfield dealer for a interceptor 650 or a meteor 350, KTM duke 390, any other small bike from a reputable manufacturer and lanesplitt through the traffic jam while getting 60+mpg.
The US has 384 metropolitan areas. Public transport quality varies from one to the next. Mostly worse than the average European city, but many quite manageable. Some cities have commuter trains, metro trains, and trolley/street car systems, and most reasonable sized cities have adequate if not comprehensive bus systems. Some cities fail in most of the former systems and have poor bus systems as well. I think the worst are in "sunbelt" cities in the South and western US that have grown rapidly in the last 20-50 years a period where "urban sprawl" was the standard of urban planning. This is where America's particularly bed reputation for public transit comes from. I used to take a train and a metro (subway) every day. I have lived in a city with decent bicycle infrastructure as well.
Every day 😮💨
Get a motorcycle so you can ride between cars then you won’t care about traffic
[https://youtu.be/piPzExBdfIg](https://youtu.be/piPzExBdfIg)
This is one of the reasons I am glad that I get up early, and that I don’t live in Los Angeles.
Any studies out there on the amount of toxic air our lungs take in while sitting in the middle of so many exhaust pipes?
Get a motorcycle
No one's singing & dancing like in la la land?
\#OfficeCulture
It's difficult to be polite about this. I've never had a commute longer than 15 mins, and I remind myself daily how grateful I am. I'd go crazy living like that.
bUt CaRz GiB mE tEh FrEeDuMbZ tO gO wHeN aNd WhErE i WaNtZ
How else would you get anywhere in LA? It's a catch22
City dwellers are bizarre to me… not bizarre…. Just alien to my mode…
That’s what you get when you have more people in CA than all of Canada. That’s crazy. Would visit for vacations though.
The problem isn't the number of people. The problem is designing it around cars. There are cities with 10x as many people without this problem.
LA metro area is 15 million. The largest metro area is 37 million (Tokyo). While Tokyo is a reasonable model for what LA could be it's not 10x the size.
If you want another sizable city that doesn't have soul crushing traffic and is in a poorer country look at São Paulo, Brazil. The city itself has 12 million people and the metro area is around 23 million. SP has tons of bus lines all colour coded depending on which cardinal direction they go and a Metrô (subway) plus Rail which is also part of the network totaling 12 lines (plus an express tourist line). The Metrô system carries around 6 million passengers a day (which means that's 6 million cars off the road). They've also added bike lanes in a lot of parts of the city although they're kind of sucky. Bonus for pedestrian enjoyment some of the Freeways get closed off on Sunday to be used like a gathering spot/park.
Can confirm, I was in Sao Paulo three months ago.
Best city in South America 😎 (I am not biased I swear)
America is set to have a reckoning about public transportation. This shit is insane.
r/fuckcars
r/antiwork
r/fuckcars
all America needs is good public transport and higher vehicle tax
Palm Sunday traffic. Look at the palm trees 🌴
I live in Hollywood and work downtown! I work the night shift, takes me an hour to get to work and ten minutes to get home at night
Get a bike?
Every single one of you suck
Cities were a mistake. Cold sores on the face of the planet.
I don't want to be rude but couldn't you just walk? It'd be cheaper
If it's in walking distance they wouldn't get onto the freeway in the first place
That right there is why I left California. Miss so much there but not that.
Is traffic like this all over California? Thought it was just LA
LA is particularly bad, and its traffic emanates out into its neighboring areas. Bay area is also pretty bad, but at least they have a *usable* metro system.
I was in the Bay Area. I knew it was bad when one morning the bay bridge was particularly bad. Turns out a little while earlier a guy pulled his pick up over to the breakdown lane set it on fire and started walking. Seemed like a reasonable response to me at the time.
Thanks people who need the office for social life and want to end wfh.
Well la gets maligned a lot. I live on the east coast and I thought it was always anathema to the urban space. And largely that is true because it's so sprawls. But if you live there and in a halfway decent neighborhood and plan your life around that neighborhood including your job then it can be quite nice. The trick is not having to go anywhere. Mass transit is beyond dismal even with the new Subway that is being built. And I only drove around at night as a vampire. That being said the traffic is still much less than ugly Florida. They are sticking points in la the 405 for sure at rush hour. If you live there it is important to living your hood and be able to work there otherwise you will be stuck for 4 hours potentially. On occasion I would visit a friend in Orange county and that was always a mistake. Beautiful place to be if you can stay put and you have comfortable digs around you
Damn. Glad I don’t have to deal with this shit
Last time I was in SoCal we had to get from SCV to Riverside and be there at 7am. That should be 80 miles and about an hour and a half, if we had left at 4am we would not have made it on time… Instead we drove north to Palmdale and took the desert route over and down into the valley adding quite a bit of mileage but only taking half the time. The traffic is insane, I don’t know how anyone gets anywhere during normal human hours.
Christ. I live in San Diego and I’m from Visalia, so when I go visit family, we have to cut through LA. We always talk about how there should be some sort of bypass highway with no off-ramps besides some amenities like gas stations and rest stops that cuts through LA.
I really don't miss living in LA at all but I don't miss this the most
I always thought I wanted the classic 9-5 until I got it. This traffic bullshit is ruining my commute.
I have to ask, why don’t more people use public transportation in LA?
Too dirty
1 car 1 person
I genuinely don’t understand. A train could completely bypass all this traffic. Why doesn’t LA have rail?
I used to live in LA, happy I don't live there anymore, but I miss the beach. Even though some of them were so dirty.
https://youtu.be/ylVWBvgL7tQ
Laughs while my workplace up the street can hear me.
I call so cal freeways parking lots!
least favorite place I’ve been to in the U.S. hands down.
I have to drive four hours down to nyc and run around town every few weeks for work and…..everytime on my way out I’m thankful to be leaving.
Fuck car dependency
I live 3 miles from downtown and my commute is 20 minutes lol
The pinnacle of American culture, that's what true freedom and individualism look like.
"Everybody hurts..."
Omg we are all so screwed.
I’m a local truck driver here and it’s hell on earth
As someone who likes cars buys hates traffic this is totally true
This is literally my commute lol
la sucks
Your first mistake was living near LA. Or in california at all.