Los Angeles is the worst city in the U.S. for traffic (airport, rail)

[9162]

There was a report on the news that indicated Honolulu had the worst traffic in the U.S.

[jrs130]

Originally Posted by CALGUY

I have been a strong advocate of having a numbered sticker on a vehicle, and that number would correspond to a day of the week.
On the day of the number on your rear window, you would not be allowed to drive your vehicle.
The only exceptions would be medical, law enforcement, and military.
I really think it is coming to this.
Bob.

Traffic in Columbia, Bogota specificially, makes LA traffic look like a joke. Having said that, they have a system similar to this - depending on the number your plate ends with, you cannot drive during peak hours for that given day (peak hours being 6am - 8pm).

the only problem with this is most people will just buy another car so that they have 1 car that "works" everyday....and that's the last thing LA needs, more cars to make parking even worse.

[Mr. Opinionated]

Maybe I didnt understand the above article title. But it just appeared to say to me that traffic is about as bad in most other major cities. And I am not by any means, rationalizing Los Angeles. But I believe that you have to address the Los Angeles automobile owner mentality to see effective change before mandating drastic measures out of frustration. You cannot expect to change a place like Los Angeles' overnight. It is not yet Portland or some other envied idyllic utopia. It is still the place where cars are king. That is as much a part of the identity of L.A. as is Hollywood.

[readymade]

???

I've driven across the country several times. I've lived in Boston, Austin, & LA. My husband is from Chicago (and has lived in all the above places). I've driven in almost every major city in the US.

Boston is BY FAR the worst city I've ever driven in. THE WORST! And LA is definitely one of the best. Austin had the most accidents I've ever seen in my life. I usually saw at least 1 or 2 fairly major ones (people being carried on stretchers) every week. I once witnessed 3 accidents (as they happened) in one day there. Boston is the most aggressive driving city I've ever lived in. Woe to the person who puts on their turn signal! Austin was friendly but seriously, everyone seemed baked. i.e. it wasn't unusual to be sitting behind someone who sat through an entire green light without moving (one time, I sat behind someone who actually sat through TWO ROTATIONS of green lights while everyone beeped at them. I think they'd fallen asleep. I saw them finally jerk their head up, look around, and finally drive off. They weren't even old!). If you needed to take the bridge over Town Lake during rush hour (like I did), you were screwed. There were a LOT of instances where you would be in a lane that would suddenly turn into a "right turn only" situation with no warning (when it was too late).

LA isn't great, by any means. But there are left-turn lanes with their own signals (unlike Boston) and no one-way streets (unlike Boston). If one street is trafficky or is having work done... just take the next street over. If the highway is jammed, take surface streets. Neither is really possible in Boston. I grew up in Boston. My whole family is from there. My whole life, I've gotten lost. When I visit home, my mom (or whoever is driving) gets lost regularly. They don't seem to understand that that is unusual, and that it doesn't have to be that way. I will say that Boston drivers, while horrible and aggressive, are "better" drivers than Austin or LA. I saw a lot of "almost" accidents, there, but everyone is fairly sharp and manages to swerve just in time. A lot (A LOT) of screaming goes on in Boston, though. A couple of weeks ago, on her way to pick me up at the airport, my sister got in a screaming match with someone (and told me about it, proudly). And then? I had to take a cab from the airport because of... you guessed it... traffic. My sister got stuck in it. Took the cab more than an hour and $50+ to drive less than 10 miles. Ugh.

Meanwhile, there's hardly any traffic in the Valley (where I live). It's much worse in Hollywood/West Hollywood, I'll admit, but NOTHING compared to Boston. That report is bull.

[CALGUY]

Originally Posted by Mr. Opinionated

Maybe I didnt understand the above article title. But it just appeared to say to me that traffic is about as bad in most other major cities. And I am not by any means, rationalizing Los Angeles. But I believe that you have to address the Los Angeles automobile owner mentality to see effective change before mandating drastic measures out of frustration. You cannot expect to change a place like Los Angeles' overnight. It is not yet Portland or some other envied idyllic utopia. It is still the place where cars are king. That is as much a part of the identity of L.A. as is Hollywood.

Doesn't much matter , King, Sming, there is a serious traffic problem in Metro Los Angeles,and it needs to be addressed, and soon.
Love affair with a vehicle has nothing to do with it.
It is just a fact, there are more vehicles in this city, and county than the roads and freeways are capable of handling.
We are at the point where it is either "raise the bridge,or lower the river".
In this case, the state is broke,so adding more freeway space is to costly, and that only leaves one other option.
A proportionate amount of vehicles will have to be removed from the system in order to facilitate the free flow of traffic.
When I originally felt a numbers system should be used, I thought that would be a monday through friday thing, but after my recent trip west on the #101, that system would have to be a seven day system.
Like any other situation when it has reached the breaking point, something has to happen.
I fully expect to see some sort of limiting service in play within the next five years.
W can't even afford to fix the roads we have now, in this state.
Where is the money going to come from to widen freeways in the future?
Frankly, California is out of options when it comes to floating bonds for projects, and that boils down to making some tough decisions that most Californians won't like, but are very necessary.
When we had the gas crisis in the seventies, we were told we could only purchase gas on days that corresponded to the last number on out licence tags.
We didn't like it, but we did it,and the same will hold true for a system that limits are daily use of our vehicles.
In another post in this thread, someone mentioned people would just purchase another vehicle in order to get around the system.
That wouldn't work, because the number would not correspond to a vehicle license tag, it would be the day of the week, and the DMV would send out numbers to a particular home address by using vehicle registration records.
If you owned one, or five vehicles, all numbered stickers of vehicles registered to that address would be given the same number, so that if your five vehicles each had the number #!, you could not use any of those vehicles on Sunday, #2, Monday etc...
The key to this, or any system put in place would be, enforcement, and extremely high penalties for those who would try to skirt the law, including loss of driving rights for a first offense.
Unlike the cell phone bill that is now law, this numbering system would have to be strictly enforced.
As much as driving is a modern day necessity, the right to drive is still a privilege given by the state, and failure to adhere to the rule of law can, and often does result in a suspension of that privilege.
There will always be a certain faction of the populous that will try and skirt the rule of law, and when caught, they are usually the loudest to scream foul.
I do believe, as I stated above, this is coming, and we had better prepare for it.
Bob.

[Elle Oh Elle]

Originally Posted by 9162

There was a report on the news that indicated Honolulu had the worst traffic in the U.S.

Maybe, and I would believe that. But I think the reason why they didn't include Hawaii is 'cause they (and Alaska) are never part of the continental US, which only includes 48 states. Also, Hawaii has less people but it's also a lot smaller. I've met some people from there and they told me it's about the same but there's less people and a lot of the area is just surrounded by water. It's probably a toss up.

[newjitty]

I find LA traffic (yes, drove the 405 DAILY) to be very LIGHT...

all relative, I'm coming from NYC METRO, where street/highway traffic whether it be Manhattan streets,I-95 in Bronx, BQE, Hoboken entrance, Route 4/17 echange in Bergen County, etc, to be MUCH MUCH MUCH worse, ironically despite having millions underground using the MTA/NJTransint/MetroNorth/LIRR/etc all of which LA doesn't publicly use respectively.

as previous poster mentioned, while LA traffic may be at a crawl, NYC metro can be at a literal STANDSTILL..

in short, LA traffic is MILD, coming from the NYC metro..

though to make up for it, I find LA Cheap, Cheap, Cheap!!! in terms of property, local, income, taxes, insurance, tolls. and general dining and wining... so I like LA in that you get a ******** more for your money out west..

its way CHEAP in LA coming from NY METRO, let alone Manhattan proper where a STUDIO/1BR afford you an actual HOUSE in Beverly Hills/Bel-Air/Brentwood/WeHo/Holbly Hills, with LESS property taxes and monthly fees...

i find LA cheap and mild, which is why I like to vacation there, but NYC's vibrancy keeps me here for now. Nothing like having my social/professional/sexual circle in a 5 block radius, sometimes in my building alone, ha.

Nothing like a 3am booty call merely 2 floors up.

[Malibu444]

It's worth mentioning for aspiring immigrants that as bad as traffic is, the battle's not over until you've parked successfully.

If you're lucky there's an underground garage that isn't too expensive. It's rarely free and often at least an informal valet service where they park your car for you and keep the keys so that they can stack cars 2 or more deep. You'll pay for parking and if there's a person involved, a tip of $2-5 if you're a sympathetic citizen. If you tend toward paranoid, keep your car keys so they can separate from your house key.

Street parking off the main streets is very often all reserved for residents. If you see a spot that appears to be available, look for signs first including permit-related info, hours, time limit and trash day. Miss any one of these and a ticket or worse, towing could ruin your day and cost a pretty penny. Also when there's a time limit, usually a roaming officer will chalk your tire and hold you to that limit.

I've heard horror stories of unpaid parking tickets going from say $30 to $300 with penalties too. Bottom line: pay attention and if you make a mistake pay for it on time.

[CALGUY]

Originally Posted by Malibu444

It's worth mentioning for aspiring immigrants that as bad as traffic is, the battle's not over until you've parked successfully.

If you're lucky there's an underground garage that isn't too expensive. It's rarely free and often at least an informal valet service where they park your car for you and keep the keys so that they can stack cars 2 or more deep. You'll pay for parking and if there's a person involved, a tip of $2-5 if you're a sympathetic citizen. If you tend toward paranoid, keep your car keys so they can separate from your house key.

Street parking off the main streets is very often all reserved for residents. If you see a spot that appears to be available, look for signs first including permit-related info, hours, time limit and trash day. Miss any one of these and a ticket or worse, towing could ruin your day and cost a pretty penny. Also when there's a time limit, usually a roaming officer will chalk your tire and hold you to that limit.

I've heard horror stories of unpaid parking tickets going from say $30 to $300 with penalties too. Bottom line: pay attention and if you make a mistake pay for it on time.

We are discussing traffic here, not parking, or citations.
Bob.

[socalpete]

Traffic is a big issue only if you're commuting from a surrounding town to LA whereas if you live in the city, it's not bad unlike some other US cities like SF or NYC, the concentration of the city is very dense. LA, on the other hand, is pretty spread out.