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I agree with him on that too, if it just me or are Chicago drivers very aggressive for no reason?
Yes they are! I always laugh in Chicago when I am on the Kennedy and someone passes by everyone by using the shoulder. People also honk ridiculously in Chicago. I think traffic is worse in LA, but it's less frustrating driving there because people aren't so aggressive.
To be fair its pretty bad in and around LA during the Thanksgiving weekend here too. A lot of people head up to Vegas, and I warned my best friend and his wife & other friends no to go during that time. They lived in another city a little over 200 miles north of LA.
Well let me tell you, I received a voice msg, that the traffic was worst than they would have ever imagined. What normally take 4-5 hours from
Vegas to L.A. ends of being 9 hours on that holiday day weekend.
Well, look at it this way. NYC on the holidays is getting traffic from both directions. People are driving down from New England to visit other places down south and people are driving up from southern states to get to New England. The traffic goes both ways. The LA-Vegas traffic, I would guess, goes predominantly one way because LA is so much bigger than Vegas. Plus, I-95 has additional complications because you have (1) a tunnel in Baltimore, (2) a bridge between Jersey and Delaware and (3) a bridge that must be crossed to get to the Cross-Bronx. Around the holidays, you literally roll bumper to bumper from DC to Baltimore, you roll from Baltimore to Delaware, roll across the Memorial Bridge, roll up the Turnpike, and then roll across the George Washington Bridge, only to be greeted by more traffic on the Cross-Bronx. It's ridiculous.
Even on regular days, the traffic is just worse. Have you ever seen the Long Island Expressway or the Van Wyck on a Saturday night? It's bumper-to-bumper. And forget about the Queens-Midtown tunnel. LA's traffic is designated to rush hour. Don't be surprised to drive into NYC from Boston on a Saturday night and get stuck in traffic in the Bronx.
To be fair its pretty bad in and around LA during the Thanksgiving weekend here too. A lot of people head up to Vegas, and I warned my best friend and his wife & other friends no to go during that time. They lived in another city a little over 200 miles north of LA.
Well let me tell you, I received a voice msg, that the traffic was worst than they would have ever imagined. What normally take 4-5 hours from Vegas to L.A. ends of being 9 hours on that holiday day weekend.
I had a drive like that too. After Thanksgiving weekend 2 years ago, I had to drive up back to the Bay Area for school. Instead of taking I-5 to CA 99 to CA 120 to I-205 to I-580, I just stayed on the 5 to 580. That was the biggest mistake of all. Keep in mind, I left at around 3 PM. It took me (and my roomates) until 3 AM to get to the Bay Area. What usually is a 5-6 hour drive, turned into a 12 hour drive. What made it even better were people that weren't going to the Bay Area, but also Sacramento, and places north and south along the West Coast (OR/WA/AZ/NV plates could be seen everywhere at the In-N-Out along CA 41)
Keep in mind, that California's highways all pretty much SUCK, so its not uncommon to be in the middle of traffic in the middle of nowhere.
New York City traffic is something else though. Crossing one of the bridges or tunnels on any given day takes a HUGE chunk out of your time. I remember my mom dropped me off one day to school in Brooklyn from Staten Island. It took 1 1/2 hours, for what should be a 40-45 minute drive (there was something going on at the Verrazano Bridge). In addition, unlike in LA, there isn't very many quick alternatives that go parallel to the freeway to avoid the traffic. Most of the time, driving on the city street is much worse.
I don't see what the status is in having worse traffic though. People on this site are getting increasingly weirder by the day...like it's a BAD THING to want to get to your destination in a quick and timely matter.
ive been in LA and NYC traffic. nothing beats DC's traffic, specifically 95 (with the exception of the cross-bronx). It always takes me 2 hours to get to work on fridays. ALWAYS. I drive about 30 miles straight south from Tyson's area to Stafford area (which is 45 mins when no traffic). sure, accidents and construction is abundant, but more often than not its pure volume. I think the HOV is a horrible idea. all it does is create bottlenecks. They should have instead created a 7-lane regular highway like LA (instead of 2 lanes HOV, 3 regular lanes, plus super-wide shoulders)...but the real problem is the lack of public transit, that NY has.
I dont know anything about Schaumburg, Illionois, so I couldn't compare it to neighborhoods in LA/NJ. but personally, I would pick NJ (although I have a bias towards it because I grew up there).
-If you are working in Carteret, I would try to live west a little. Union County can be very beautiful - Westfield, Cranford, and up to the west orange/millburn area. I don't know much about middlesex county, but Woodbridge and Edison are 2 large areas down there.
As far as prices go, its going to be very difficult to find the prices you were payin in Chicago. 1800 renting may get you a 2-3br condo, but you wont find more than that unless you're in a shady area, I think.
I would personally work in Hoboken over Carteret. Its an awesome area, and you have a ton of options as to where to live. You can reasonably commute to Hoboken from almost anywhere - North up to the Fort Lee area (take the Hudson-Bergen light rail down), east into NYC (take PATH train in), west into Nutley/Montclair, etc (take NJ transit to Secaucus, transfer to hoboken), and even from Newark if you want (again, PATH). You can drive, although I don't recommend it. Rt. 3 can sometimes be alright (it goes east-west into clifton, and then out to Wayne via rt. 46).
The pros of NJ over LA specifically are public transit - its everywhere! so you don't always need to worry about traffic. If you pick hoboken especially, you have a ton of options like I said.
-You have the small, pretty established neighborhoods with quiet, leafy streets. thats what I love about NJ. (good examples are Nutley, montclair, south orange, and basically everything in Bergen County). Many of these towns have top-notch schools too.
-Crime won't be an issue compared to LA. I can't speak very well for LA since Ive never lived there, but from visiting i feel like crime and the homeless, etc. are spread out evenly almost everywhere - even into nice areas. In NJ, its very isolated. every town/city is different. You can live in northern Bloomfield for example, and live in a very beautiful area where you don't have to worry about a thing. But 2 miles away, you get into Newark and things go downhill. But my point is that you know where the line is drawn, and the crap doesn't sprawl out, it stays there.
-the 4 seasons are great. but thats a matter of opinion.....as is probably everything else I would have said about NJ if i chose to keep going
-Hope that helps a little! look up some of those towns i mentioned.
I stayed in LA several times for a week or so and though I got into some pretty bad traffic there, driving was still easier than in NYC. Firstly, not everywhere and not all the time LA traffic was terrible. Secondly, the roads were in much better condition. And thirdly, the weather was never a big factor.
Driving every day to Manhattan according to my GPS the average speed is just about 20 mph. Congestions are practically everywhere, not just Manhattan. Add to that potholes, construction, crazy taxi drivers driving erratically, stopping anywhere, turning from any lane, people trying to jump in front of your car, terrible weather conditions, etc. I haven't seen any other city in the world where traffic conditions were as bad as in NYC.
I found NYC far worse than LA. Aside from the great points you make here, NYC is worse because the stress of living and working in NYC is far worse than in LA. LA driving is bad, but NYC driving is offensive and infuriating. What a way to live.
LA's is worst, probably the worst in the United States. It always ranks in the top 3 with DC and Atlanta on Forbes.
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I agree
