Los Angeles traffic vs. Bay Area traffic: illustrated (San Francisco, Oakland: driving, town)

[Twinkle Toes]

I'll take LA traffic any day over SF traffic. At least in LA you can take a bunch of side streets and shortcuts. Once you're stuck in traffic on the GG bridge, you're stuck. Aint no shortcuts or side streets there! I was stuck on the bridge once for almost 3 hours. Had to pee like a racehorse once I got to my destination!

[AnUnidentifiedMale]

Lesson: Los Angeles should have completed its freeway system. That's right, boys and girls - L.A. needs more freeways - not fewer.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by AnUnidentifiedMale

Lesson: Los Angeles should have completed its freeway system. That's right, boys and girls - L.A. needs more freeways - not fewer.

A couple years ago there was an initiative to widen the 101 (and I think the 405) from the west San Fernando Valley through (I think the west LA area..)

It failed big time. Nobody along the route wanted to sell their homes and businesses. Many of those homes and businesses along those routes are in middle to upper cost areas. Perhaps putting freeways through industrial, commercial, and government owned lands would be more politically possible; but still the routes would have to be meaningful.

[AnUnidentifiedMale]

Originally Posted by Charles

A couple years ago there was an initiative to widen the 101 (and I think the 405) from the west San Fernando Valley through (I think the west LA area..)

It failed big time. Nobody along the route wanted to sell their homes and businesses. Many of those homes and businesses along those routes are in middle to upper cost areas. Perhaps putting freeways through industrial, commercial, and government owned lands would be more politically possible; but still the routes would have to be meaningful.

Yep. And that's the conundrum. Lots of people complain about the traffic, but they're unwilling to fund new roadways. Freeways are out of fashion now, so getting new ones approved or even expanding the existing freeways is probably impossible. I'm not sure what the freeway-haters think the solution is. If they think that subways are the answer, they're fooling themselves, in my opinion, and they'll all be dead before most of them are ever built.

[Bruin1996]

Having lived in and driven in both Northern (SF Bay Area) and Southern California(LA and San Diego), I still think LA traffic is worse at rush hour (especially the 405 and 5) than Bay Area traffic with San Diego being better than both. I remember trying to get from UCLA to the 405 during rush hour and even the roads leading to the highway were pretty much a parking lot.

[mike8290]

Well, all in all LA traffic will just keep getting worse and worse over the years. Even if they add more public transportation it just means that the developers are allowed to build more and denser construction.

[AnUnidentifiedMale]

Originally Posted by mike8290

Well, all in all LA traffic will just keep getting worse and worse over the years. Even if they add more public transportation it just means that the developers are allowed to build more and denser construction.

Yep, and many people have been brainwashed into believing that, somehow, low-density population ("urban sprawl") is what causes traffic congestion. It makes no sense at all. Anyone familiar with New York City knows that high-density doesn't alleviate traffic congestion; it just leads to - yes, that's right - MORE congestion!

[18Montclair]

Originally Posted by AnUnidentifiedMale

Yep, and many people have been brainwashed into believing that, somehow, low-density population ("urban sprawl") is what causes traffic congestion. It makes no sense at all. Anyone familiar with New York City knows that high-density doesn't alleviate traffic congestion; it just leads to - yes, that's right - MORE congestion!

Actually effective public transit means that there is a viable alternative and it alleviates traffic on roadways.

I got a sense of how valuable transit is in the Bay Area when BART workers went on strike in 1997. It was the only time in my entire life that I thought traffic in the US was comparable to developing world cities as far as traffic nightmares. It took me 2.5 hrs to cross the Bay Bridge from Oakland into DT SF.

Imagine what NYC would be like on the day that subway workers ever went on strike. yikes.

[sonarrat]

It sure looks like Los Angeles out there today, with the bridge closed..

[Twinkle Toes]

Wasn't the bridge closed a couple of weeks ago when a Safeway truck overturned spilling veggies all over the lanes?