I had to go to my cousin's Sweet Sixteenth yesterday. The party was at some hotel hall about 50 miles from where I live, so it should take a little less than an hour to get there. But not when you're driving the 101 North on a Sunday afternoon in LA County. Nope, it's bumper to bumper traffic from the 134 interchange all the way to the 405. It takes 20 minutes to go 2 miles! What's worse is I'm driving a manual transmission. Stick shift and stop-and-go traffic don't play well together. It's not like automatic where you just let off the brake when traffic goes or apply pressure when it stops. I've got to shift gears to go about 3 feet forward, otherwise someone will try to cut me off because they think they're getting somewhere when they're really not. If I do let someone in, then the guy behind me starts honking and yelling, and I really don't want to get involved in someone else's road rage. If it wasn't so stop-and-go, then I could just ride the clutch, but I have to sit and wait awhile for traffic to move. So I've got to shift into first and sometimes second, then back into neutral. It SUCKS!!! Luckily I can usually avoid traffic, and most of the places I go aren't in the city.

 

 

 

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You shoulda took side roads and stuff. Actually Im not to keen on where you are, im north of toronto and theres alot of country. So to get to toronto, tere is a freeway 15 minutes east of my small town, and a couple highways in the cities direction. But normal I'd rather take a sideroad if I hear the 401 is backed up cause then you know all the highways are going to be jammed. 401 usually isnt too bad... busy enough.

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That would be wonderful if Los Angeles wasn't such a sprawling urban area built by incompetent city planners. I'm actually quite adept at reading maps, but, unfortunately, my Thomas Guide is only for LA and Orange Counties, not Ventura. Of course, it's damn near impossible to get anywhere in LA without taking the freeways. If it's moving at least 20-25mph, that's faster than going on sidestreets which are usually just as crowded. If you're lucky, there's a road that follows the freeway, but ours don't always seem to go in the directions that they're supposed to. For example, Highway 101 is supposed to run north and south, but the stretch I was driving ran more east and west. And then there's the awful 10/710 interchange where the on-ramp is actually on the left. We've also got the MENSA candidates working for CalTrans who decided it would be a great idea to have all the freeways merge in one place, so traffic gets all congested everytime you get to the Orange Crush or the East LA interchange. Don't even get me started on when they think is a good time to start construction or "beautification" projects.

 

 

 

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Driving from Sac to Oceanside is a pain since I have to pass through LA. Driving through there 2-3 times a year annoys me, but I can't imagine what it's like to actually live there. Unfortunately, there's not much that can and will be done.

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There's always going to be traffic when you go to a major city, you just have to be patience and live with it. You could complain to the people in LA but I'm sure they won't do anything. Just try not to travel down there again.

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Yea, traffic gets really bad around here, too.
Just last week I had to wait for three cars to go by before I could pull out onto the Highway from my sub-division and then after getting to town I had to stop in the middle of Town for nearly 15 seconds when a Pedestrian walked across the street.
I hate it when I have to actually stop for the one traffic light in town...

1 Crosswalk Light and 1 set of traffic lights here.

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Jim, I hope you've seen The Princess Bride since it's an awesomely fabulous movie, but more particularly, I'd like to do to you exactly what Westley says to Prince Humperdink in the final scene. "To the Pain!"
I know that if I moved, I wouldn't have to pay ridiculous prices for a house or deal with all this crappy traffic or smog or earthquakes or the dozens of other things that I deal with on a daily basis for living in Los Angeles. But it's where I grew up, and all the people I love most are here. It's a trade-off I'm willing to make for near perfect weather all year long, surfing in the morning and snowboarding in the afternoon, exotic cuisines from all over the world authentically prepared and only a few miles away, bargain-shopping at the garment district, theme parks galore, and the hundreds of other reasons why people choose to stay as well as the thousands of other people who keep moving here. Honestly, there are better beaches out there, there are better mountains, better deserts, better metropolises, but where esle in the world could you find them all within a 2 hour drive from each other.

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Sacramento And some places in Ukraine where I used to live, like Zaporozhye.

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Sacramento is only slightly better than Fresno, which is only marginally better than Bakersfield. Points added because it IS the state capitol and has such beautiful and regal architecture, points down because it's the residence of the last two governors and because it's the state capitol and filled with greedy politicians and lobbyists.
I think if I were to rate my favorite areas in California, San Diego would be #1, followed by Santa Barbara, then maybe San Francisco, then Carmel, not just because it's absolutely gorgeous there, but I think it would be cool to say that Clint Eastwood was Mayor. Anyways, Los Angeles is actually at the bottom of my top 10, but as I said before, my family's here and like most Filipinos, family is everything to me. And between my husband's family and mine, I've literally had to go to 6 different family functions for Christmas, 8 if you include Christmas Eve. Maybe moving wouldn't be such a bad idea after all...

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Tell me about it. I'd be better off walking. Of course though I don't live in LA but when I went to a friend house, it was terrible. I really have no patience for that kinda stuff.

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