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I haven't driven in Boston recently but from what I hear Boston drivers are more aggressive and maybe worse drivers. Also I think that LA streets are more on a grid and likely wider. Boston also has weather. The only thing that's probably more stressful about driving in LA is the hours per day that we have congestion. In many areas we have traffic nearly all the time, even at night.
I think L.A. drivers are actually pretty predictable, drive aggressively and fast in dense traffic but often use their signals and are apt to allow lane changes and maneuvers from other drivers just to facilitate movement in the morass of traffic that generally defines the whole area. The traffic itself is stressful but the drivers mostly not.
Boston streets are laid out as crazily as Paris being that it is a pre-car city and of course it has traffic but does not have 10-20 lane wide freeway interchanges that we have in SoCa or common eight lane wide city streets. Thus the drivers are aggressive and are generally jockeying for space in just two or three lanes with a few confusing rotaries mixed in. You need to be very decisive in finding the correct lanes quickly that send you off in the desired direction with few people willing to let you in if you miss it by a moment. And the locals being generally pizzed off while they are driving. I am always majorly stressed out driving in that city, more than any city I’ve driven in.
I don't find driving in LA very stressful. Sure, there's traffic at all hours, but as long as you give yourself enough time, there is no big stress. 95+% of drivers, for the most part, are reasonably nice. They pretty much always let you merge when a lane ends. When ever we have guests from the Midwest, they are always surprised by how much nicer the drivers are, with several commenting about how back in the Midwest, when you put your blinker on to change lanes the other cars will speed up so you can't come over. That was my experience whn I lived there as well.
The biggest stressor in LA is if you come with unrealistic traffic expectations, like thinking you'll be able to get to Santa Monica from downtown on the 10 in 15 mins at 11AM because it's 15 miles and "not rush hour." When it ends up taking 40-50 mins, that is stressful. If you plan on it taking that long, it's not a big deal.
As for Boston, I haven't driven there recently, but I remember my parents getting pretty turned around and traffic being very heavy.
I enjoyed driving in Boston. I've found LA to be more of a nuisance, but still not really "stressful".
Places like Denver though, where people chronically drive timidly and construction/mobility is horribly lacking and behind the eight ball, that stressful to me. It's traffic and slow flow, under a sleepy/lazy/disinterested vibe, to add insult to injury.
I dont recall noticing anything out of the ordinary about driving in Boston.
LA otoh has such gut wrenchingly bad traffic that I couldnt help but vote for it. It once took me 3 hrs to drive from LAX to North Hollywood. That's downright Sao Paulolike.
I dont recall noticing anything out of the ordinary about driving in Boston.
LA otoh has such gut wrenchingly bad traffic that I couldnt help but vote for it. It once took me 3 hrs to drive from LAX to North Hollywood. That's downright Sao Paulolike.
Yeah, it’s a different sort of stress for sure. I find Boston overall more stressful because you have to really be on your toes to avoid making mistakes and I just find the streets somewhat confusing. I guess if you live there you get used to it.
LA is stressful because of the sheer congestion, even though I find it fairly easy to navigate but for the traffic. But I’m so used to traffic being in Seattle that it doesn’t faze me down there, unless I have to be somewhere and am going to be late due to the traffic.
As a LA native who has traveled to Boston/Cambridge, I would say LA is way more stressful.
The 405, 10, 5, 710 and 101 are simply horrendous
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