Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
You can avoid traffic in LA and even when you hit it, traffic moves. NYC and the metro around it is brutal even if you do have options to driving.
You can drive all around LA and the suburbs with no problems for the most part. A car metro NYC is a huge anchor that will keep you from getting anything productive done.
Oh yes that whole LA traffic nightmare is just a myth
My point is that if you take a car into LA and use it to navigate the LA area (downtown and region) for a week and then do the same in NYC for a week, the traffic in NYC will be much more annoying, slow etc. Even when traffic is moving in the NYC area it's still slow and crowded and has delays.
In LA, downtown is not that congested and the freeways move at 70-80 mph when they are not backed up and they are not all backed up all the time. The biggest problem with LA is just how many miles you end up driving there. So even at 40mph, when you are trying to go 30-50 miles across the city, that's a big delay.
I have spent plenty of time in cars in both areas and my opinion is that traffic in NYC is much worse than LA. The good thing about NY is you can avoid it, park the car and not touch it again for a week. You can't really do that in LA. But this thread was about which city has worse traffic, not about which city has the most people that have to deal with that traffic.
Both cities have terrible traffic issues though. So saying one it much worse than the other doesn't mean one of them still doesn't have horrible traffic.
If you think "downtown is not that congested", you are crazy. Per the report I linked above, it is THE most congested area in all of the United States. Period.
LA's traffic is, IMHO, much more psychologically defeating because you've got like six lanes in either direction, and during rush hour, not a single one is moving, at all. As you sit there, you can't say to yourself, "I should have just taken the subway from my office in West LA to my home in Reseda and just tolerated being sardined in with everyone else," because you can't. Your only choice is to suffer, and suffer you will.
My point is that if you take a car into LA and use it to navigate the LA area (downtown and region) for a week and then do the same in NYC for a week, the traffic in NYC will be much more annoying, slow etc. Even when traffic is moving in the NYC area it's still slow and crowded and has delays.
In LA, downtown is not that congested and the freeways move at 70-80 mph when they are not backed up and they are not all backed up all the time. The biggest problem with LA is just how many miles you end up driving there. So even at 40mph, when you are trying to go 30-50 miles across the city, that's a big delay.
I have spent plenty of time in cars in both areas and my opinion is that traffic in NYC is much worse than LA. The good thing about NY is you can avoid it, park the car and not touch it again for a week. You can't really do that in LA. But this thread was about which city has worse traffic, not about which city has the most people that have to deal with that traffic.
Both cities have terrible traffic issues though. So saying one it much worse than the other doesn't mean one of them still doesn't have horrible traffic.
Did you really drive in downtown LA when you were here? It sounds like maybe you are confusing LA with some other city. Downtown LA is actually very congested and prone to traffic all day long seven days a week. It's probably the most congested area in the metro and hardly anyone drives 80 even when the freeways are moving. You see that more in the suburbs like where I live.
What downtown LA and NYC have in common that make them probably worse than most cities, are more off peak traffic. We have non-construction related traffic in the middle of the day and on weekends much more than most cities. Also LA surface street traffic is worse than the common perception. At least in much of central and west LA.
My father lives in midtown manhattan so I'm there quite a bit. Usually on transit but I sometimes drive. Traffic in LA and NYC are pretty similar. The bridges and tunnels make NY worse but not drastically so.
If you think "downtown is not that congested", you are crazy. Per the report I linked above, it is THE most congested area in all of the United States. Period.
It's not. Sorry. Downtown LA is no more congested than most major cities.
Now I understand the freeways around downtown are congested but even those are not brutal 24 hours a day. There is a big difference between driving through LA on the 5 or 10 verse driving through NYC on 95 etc. You are far more likely to be delayed an hour trying to cross a bridge or tunnel and move a distance of just a few miles in NYC than you are in LA. You don't sit on downtown LA freeways for hours at a time. The bigger difference is that in LA it's mostly the freeways that are busy. In NYC (and DC too), the surface streets are just as bad, if not worse, than the freeways.
I go to LA all the time and pretty much have no problems at all getting around. I actually enjoy driving on the big freeways there. What gets old is how long it takes to get around the metro, but that’s more about distance than traffic delays. When I’m in LA, I’m all over downtown, but I also crisscross all over the metro from orange county to Santa Monica to Pasedena back to long beach up to Glendale etc. When downtown, it’s no problem at all. Zero problem. You can typically find street parking or cheap garage parking just about any place and congestion is low, even while the 10 it all backed up just blocks away. Look at the photo I posted above. Those freeways are full, but traffic is probably moving at least 20-30 mph and you can see the surface streets in the photo are nearly empty. That photo was taken around 5pm on a weekday.
It just not like that in NYC. Everything is always crowded, you could get stuck on an on ramp for 30 minutes to get into a tunnel. The GW Bridge is always backed up etc. There is no place to park, toll plazas everywhere and you car can take a beating just being in NYC for a day with bumper scratches etc.
Traffic and driving in general is a pain in the ass in nyc. In LA, it’s just like having a few denvers next to each other in NYC it’s like putting philly and downtown Chicago on top of LA and adding lots of natural barriers like rivers. Different places, they really are.
Having driven extensively in LA and in east coast cities, I completely disagree. LA does have traffic at all times and outside rush hour. We don't have bridges and tunnels but we do have traffic at all times. Not 24 hours a day, but maybe 19 hours a day.
Also in my experience, LAs more congested areas (Hollywood, West LA, mid-city,etc) the surface street traffic is worse than DC. Worse than almost anywhere except NY. And NY isn't bad all of the time either. It's worse than LA overall, but I can also often drive around the metro off peak with little traffic. It just depends on when and where.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
.
