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justthemaid
climber
Jim Henson's Basement
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Feb 20, 2017 - 06:30pm PT
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I lived in LA most of my life.
Trust me... San Francisco is worse.
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Contractor
Boulder climber
CA
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Feb 20, 2017 - 06:34pm PT
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Northern TJ to the Grape Vine has got to be the biggest car laden concrete crap hole on the planet.
I go Eastside these days.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Feb 20, 2017 - 06:45pm PT
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JTM, just so, I refuse to drive there, period.
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Fat Dad
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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Feb 20, 2017 - 06:48pm PT
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LA is way light compared to Cairo.
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MikeL
Social climber
Southern Arizona
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Feb 20, 2017 - 06:56pm PT
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Riley +1
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Happiegrrrl2
Trad climber
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Feb 20, 2017 - 08:26pm PT
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I drove in LA once, and I hope I never have to again. I certainly wouldn't do it willingly.
It was BITD when I worked as a designer, and we went to LA for an R&D shopping 3 days or so. Besides the driving - Rodeo Drive...Holy CRAP! I saw this woman standing in the sidewalk who was SO perfectly "made up" from tip of her highlighted hair to the soles of her impeccable and probably $2K high heels. She was standing still when I spotted her, and I honestly had this thought: "How wierd is this? They put mannequins out on the sidewalk to show the stuff available in the stores????" And then, the mannequin began to walk. I really could not believe the precise attention to EVERY detail. In comparison, NYC's Madison Avenue "Ladies Who Lunch" were as dowdy old maids.
But except for that, and being told after the fact that I was not in NY and was going to get myself killed if I thought I could Jaywalk there(when I ran across a road mid-block to get to a smoothie place) and the car drivers really would have run me down if I hadn't scooted my surprised at the gall ass out of the road.
On one of those huge multilane roads, the traffic was going like 70MPH and this guy comes past on my right and then diagonally traverses the entire seven (or how many it was) lanes from outside to inner lane. I would never have believed it possible. But I guess when you HAVE to get places there, you know how much room between cars you actually do need. I swear I almost threw up at the sight of it.
JTM - I have driven just a few times in SF and it doesn't instill the fear in me that LA did.
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john bald
climber
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Feb 20, 2017 - 08:30pm PT
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Alright Tad!
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phylp
Trad climber
Upland, CA
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Feb 20, 2017 - 08:32pm PT
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Happie, LOL! Funny story.
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Fat Dad
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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Feb 20, 2017 - 10:41pm PT
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LA people are all pretty nice until they get into their cars. Then, if you're in their way because you don't know where you're going, they will let you know.
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Spider Savage
Mountain climber
The shaggy fringe of Los Angeles
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Feb 20, 2017 - 10:43pm PT
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Driving in LA requires timing skills. You don't go certain places at certain times.
Your route from Downey to Universal City could lake less than 30 minutes at the right time of day.
Disneyland would have been better from Downey (where Dave Alvin is from)
Some nice rocks at Universal:
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August West
Trad climber
Where the wind blows strange
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Feb 20, 2017 - 11:11pm PT
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Do you want to walk or do we have time to take a cab?
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NutAgain!
Trad climber
South Pasadena, CA
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Feb 20, 2017 - 11:16pm PT
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I used to drive from LA area down the 5 to 91 east to Corona, and Downey is always the crappiest spot. Mostly I work from home and don't have to deal with traffic :)
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justthemaid
climber
Jim Henson's Basement
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Feb 21, 2017 - 07:44am PT
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Quote Spider: "Driving in LA requires timing skills. You don't go certain places at certain times."
That's the key^. Sometimes must leaving an hour early can save 2 hours of sitting in traffic. There's a lot of alternate freeways and it helps if you know them too.
I'll give the OP some sympathy...That 91 Downey/Corona area has gotten particularly shitty for traffic.It all funnels down and there's not an easy alternative. There's so much new suburban sprawl out there it has truly become a total friggin' nightmare if you have to drive it at rush hour. If there is an accident you are screwed.
@ Happi- Oy- Your "mannequin" story is a drop in the bucket of LA weirdness. One time I was sitting a a red light on Sunset... Waiting to cross in the crosswalk at noon are three people:
1) a Hasidic Jew in the full gettup
2) an impeccably-groomed Asian man in an electric blue suit and
3). Fran N Furter from the Rocky Horror Show (fully made up in garters).
The even weirder thing was that all three seemed to be having a conversation waiting for the light- like nothing was odd.
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pyro
Big Wall climber
Calabasas
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Feb 21, 2017 - 08:19am PT
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it is what it is!
love the L.A freeway system. lucky for me I work so early in the morning that I never get any traffic however early work hours means drunks are going home.
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hooblie
climber
from out where the anecdotes roam
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Feb 21, 2017 - 09:07am PT
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my pressure relief valve never got tested when there was the option to slide between the lanes on a motorcycle. extreme focus required and a very measured application of distrust.
when things loosen up, i tried to migrate to the left most lane, allow some following distance to where i could watch for debris in the road that would appear from between the wheels of the vehicle ahead. any evasive maneuvers would in theory favor the median.
my point is ... when the landscaper tosses a bucket onto a flatbed he may as well be packing your parachute, he's making a life and death decision for any motorcycle that comes along. all the debris in the median is an eye opener.
how many times does the traffic report include a reference to "ladder in the number three lane?" that's a death warrant for the next motorcycle who might survive the slide, but then he's a pedestrian
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canyoncat
Social climber
SoCal
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Feb 21, 2017 - 09:34am PT
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The key to living in LA is to move here when young and do everything you want to do and see in the first 10 years when you still have the energy and patience to deal.
Then you settle into your career, and move close to work. No more driving around unless it's necessary. Been there, done that. I love LA. Admittedly, we suck when it comes to the slightest bit of rain. You'd think it was snow and ice.
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guyman
Social climber
Moorpark, CA.
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Feb 21, 2017 - 09:53am PT
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Yea our traffic sucks.... Tell the world, don't go to LA.
As Rielly and others have pointed out... if you think we are bad, you have never been anywhere in the world.
Hooblie....you must drive your bike in the lane formed by the tires, never in the center-between the wheels.... cars will weave to miss stuff-- you must follow the car. And the oil and fluids that drip out out of cars is laid down in the center. That was taught to me by a nice CHP officer the first time I was ordered to TAKE THE CLASS by the nice judge.
One must be smart about when and where you go... For example: This Thursday I'm heading to Phoenix to referee a Kart race for three days... I will climb into my car at 4:30am and will not stop till Blythe for breakfast around 8:30. On the return Trip-- I will go bouldering in Phoenix-- Beardsleys...reminds me of Stoney point... and make a big detour to the north of the city via Lancaster. One must do this to avoid the 5-6 hour "commute" from Palm Springs to Moorpark if started at 3pm.
But due to the influx of 3rd world types and Jerry Brown's cuts to the DMV licensing procedures it WILL get worse, much worse, just give it ten years.
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ydpl8s
Trad climber
Santa Monica, California
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Feb 21, 2017 - 10:02am PT
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I moved to LA in 2008 from Denver. My friends from Denver asked me what it was like to drive in LA. I told them "the best way I can describe it is that EVERYBODY is absolutely sure THEY have the right of way".
Oh yeah, that lane splitting thing the motorcyclists do on the freeway scares me to death.
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Feb 21, 2017 - 10:08am PT
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LA doesn't even make the top ten for bad traffic worldwide.
Here's the latest study...
Bangkok has the worst evening rush hour traffic in the world for a second consecutive year, according to GPS manufacturer TomTom.
The results were compiled after TomTom tracked a years-worth of traffic in 390 cities across 48 countries.
Here is the 2017 ranking of cities with the most severe evening rush hour traffic:
1. Bangkok, Thailand
2. Mexico City, Mexico
3. Bucharest, Romania
4. Jakarta, Indonesia
5. Moscow, Russia
6. Chongqing, China
7. Istanbul, Turkey
8. St. Petersburg, Russia
9. Zhuhai, China
10. Santiago, Chile
11. 11. Guangzhou, China
12. Shijiazhuang, China
13. Shenzhen, China
14. Los Angeles, U.S.
15. Beijing, China
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Gorgeous George
Trad climber
Los Angeles, California
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Feb 21, 2017 - 01:07pm PT
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You think driving in L.A. is tough, try riding a bike. People don't respect you one bit, so you have to fight for your right to have space.
I used to ride from SGV to downtown on my bike, could make the 13 miles in just under an hour, usually faster than someone in a car.
Talk about EXCITING!!!!
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