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If you think Los Angeles is “laid back”, you don’t know Los Angeles.
I've visited the city three times: once in 1966 (the Watts rioters torched the business block next to my great-uncles package store but left his store untouched; it was located at 137th and Willowbrook Avenue — I think the A Line to Long Beach passes it now) and twice in the 1980s while my Mom was stationed at VA Medical Center Brentwood.
Those latter visits were the first time I drove in bumper-to-bumper traffic, all doing 60, and I found that rather interesting. But while the city certainly was busy, it didn't seem like the same kind of busy I experience here in Philly or did on my one visit so far to San Francisco in 2006.
I do note that generally speaking, in this discussion, Philadelphia and LA occupy the same plane, and so calling it fast-paced is not an inaccurate statement. But I still maintain, and I'd say that I'm in the majority here, that basing that conclusion simply on how many cars are on the road doesn't give you an accurate picture. It's in the interpersonal realm that you pick up the vibe, and that requires getting out of the car.
Though bumper-to-bumper traffic doing the speed limit, I guess, does say something. Usually, traffic that heavy slows down. The only other city where I've experienced that is Houston, which I've called "Texas' answer to LA, right down to the palm trees, those freeways full of Andretti wannabes and a suburb named Pasadena."
Los Angeles. It has amongst the least amount of foot traffic and mass transit commuters of any major city. That’s a statistical fact. Would you call LA slow paced? Because I certainly would not.
L.A can be stressful (especially the traffic) and b*tchy but compared to a few East Coast cities (cough cough NYC.) L.A can be very “peace and love” (my husband’s exact words)-when we just moved back to L.A (my family is in L.A) after living in more than a decade in Manhattan I remember both of us were driven crazy by how slow people returned your phone calls and how “slow” some people drove (esp in the rain!) and how passive-aggressive some people in L.A were. (again compared to how we were accustomed in NYC.)
I was selling my condo in Manhattan while us buying a house in L.A simultaneously.-huge differences from the realtors on respective coasts. Sometimes people in L.A take their sweet time getting things done, and depends on where you are in L.A, yes, it can be slow-paced (such as getting stuck in Downtown L.A for a good half an hour passing Dodger Stadium tunnel.-that’s very SLOW-PACED.)
I've visited the city three times: once in 1966 (the Watts rioters torched the business block next to my great-uncles package store but left his store untouched; it was located at 137th and Willowbrook Avenue — I think the A Line to Long Beach passes it now) and twice in the 1980s while my Mom was stationed at VA Medical Center Brentwood.
Those latter visits were the first time I drove in bumper-to-bumper traffic, all doing 60, and I found that rather interesting. But while the city certainly was busy, it didn't seem like the same kind of busy I experience here in Philly or did on my one visit so far to San Francisco in 2006.
I do note that generally speaking, in this discussion, Philadelphia and LA occupy the same plane, and so calling it fast-paced is not an inaccurate statement. But I still maintain, and I'd say that I'm in the majority here, that basing that conclusion simply on how many cars are on the road doesn't give you an accurate picture. It's in the interpersonal realm that you pick up the vibe, and that requires getting out of the car.
Though bumper-to-bumper traffic doing the speed limit, I guess, does say something. Usually, traffic that heavy slows down. The only other city where I've experienced that is Houston, which I've called "Texas' answer to LA, right down to the palm trees, those freeways full of Andretti wannabes and a suburb named Pasadena."
I didn’t suggest the amount of cars on the road meant a fast pace - I said driving styles/habits/impatience. Very different things. I very much disagree that to pick up a vibe, you have to get out of your car.
We won’t agree on this so it’s best to leave it at that.
Los Angeles. It has amongst the least amount of foot traffic and mass transit commuters of any major city. That’s a statistical fact. Would you call LA slow paced? Because I certainly would not.
That's not true. It doesn't have as much foot traffic or as many transit commuters as a few other cities but it's far from being towards the bottom for major American cities.
That's not true. It doesn't have as much foot traffic or as many transit commuters as a few other cities but it's far from being towards the bottom for major American cities.
Cone top think of it, BajanYankee is right.
LA may have lots of freeways, but it also has a two-line heavy rail subway (one line of which will ultimately reach Santa Monica), four light rail/light metro lines and two BRT routes.
Not to mention one of the most heavily used bus systems in the country.
The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority's two rapid transit subway lines carry more than 25 million riders annually, making it the 9th-busiest rapid transit system in the US. (There are 15 total.) And the LACMTA system in toto logged 254,688,124 trips in calendar 2022, according to the National Transit Database.
Definitely far from "towards the bottom."
Sorry I keep riding this horse, kidyankee764, but it really seems to me that your understanding of urban areas and what makes them tick is too autocentric.
I grew up in a city that has a bus system and now a modern streetcar; both are totally free to ride, but the buses mostly run empty while the streetcar is quite popular. However, I learned to use the buses to get around it (they weren't as empty when I was a kid) before I learned how to drive, and that habit has served me well ever since (and probably explains why I live in the Northeast rather than Kansas City). And it should be clear by now that I also have a driver's license and drive from time to time.
It has a few nodes of pedestrian activity but is otherwise a drive-everywhere place. Its downtown is bereft of signs of life on its streets even during the work week. Folks get around it quickly because it has the lowest level of traffic congestion of any 2m+ US metro, but no one would call it fast-paced.
LA makes the cut because, um, not everyone there drives. I've at least acknowledged that driving can tell you something about an area. I don't think it's the primary feature to use to determine how fast-paced it is, though.
The entire discussion about LA can be summarized as vibrant ≠ fast paced, although both can be stressful.
Various environmental factors like weather, urban density, architecture, and other things have an impact on people's moods and perceptions, which contribute to certain types of images or cultures, i.e., faster speech and less impatience. At the end of the day, it's really just psychological.
I'll give LA a +1 if we're comparing Metros though; it's much faster-paced and lively than the Delaware Valley since center city is/was designed to be the central hub for all activities in the region, which is why most of the suburbs feel "sleepy", especially on the Jersey side outside of Camden and it's suburbs.
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