Is the traffic really that bad? (Los Angeles, San Diego: hotel, home, middle school)

[jodi1216]

Are we talking horrible are tolerable. Are there a lot of rude drivers, accidents?

I'm thinking of relocating my family to a more open-minded place in the future. Right now we are in Gadsden, Alabama. I have a multi-racial son in middle school who is not having a pleasant time of it. We will be moving back to Florida soon but I would really like to settle down in a different area of the country.

So far I'm getting this about SD: beautiful, expensive, great weather, bad traffic, lots to do, many dog lovers, good mexican food, laid back, superficial (a percentage), idealistic, lot of outdoor activities, mostly safe...

Is that about right?

[Encinitan]

Traffic is relative. I lived in Orange County and Los Angeles. That's bad traffic. San Diego has pockets of bad traffic and certain times of the day, but not the total gridlock that many cities experience. It's absolutely a factor of where you live, where you work, and what times you have to drive. Based on those, it could be a horrible commute and it could be a breeze.
San Diego is beautiful, expensive, with great weather, there is lots to do, fantastic mexican food, with laid back people, many of whom enjoy outdoors activities.
I'm from San Diego and in So Cal for life, so I've never really gotten the whole fake, superficial, plastic knock on this area. I don't know people like that, but I guess I see them around town.

[esmith143]

My mom lives in a town in Texas not unlike your Gadsden (a bit smaller, 19,000 residents), and whenever she comes here, she tells me that she couldn't possibly drive a car here - way too much traffic. But I guess that's extreme. She got her first driver's license in her 40's. If you can handle freeways with 5-6 lanes in each direction, you'll be fine. You can't really have "laid back" and "rude drivers" at the same time.

The most important thing to know is that, unlike elsewhere in the country, SoCal speed limits are really _lower_ limits. When the sign says "65", you're not supposed to go slower than 65 in any lane. If you really want to go 65, do it in the rightmost lane. Best thing to do is to stay with traffic, which usually goes 75-80. Tales about horrible Californian traffic and rude drivers usually come from those who try to go at the speed limit or lower in a middle lane on the freeway.

[LoneStarJerry]

I just don't see traffic being all that bad here compared to some other places, try driving in L.A. for a couple of days and then come back down here and you'll know that our traffic is peanuts compared to how bad it really could be.

[jksouthbay88]

LA has bad traffic because they have 3 and 4 lane freeways for over 10 million people.OC traffic is the bad one.Same population as San Diego with wider freeways(6 or 7 lanes)and worse traffic then LA and SD.In my opinion drivers here are more ride than other cities,most of them don't use turn signals,drive fast on the right,slow on the left,and get over last second or cross 3 lanes to exit.Plus if they don't let you over if you need or want to.You have to throw your car into another lane and make others slow down around here.I really can't tolerate the drivers in San Diego and i have not been driving that long.One thing that we do a lot here is use a horn.If you don't move within one second of a green light expect to get honked and or flipped off.(Well maybe not flipped off but honked at.)

My observation is that in LA if you need or want to get over,they let you,they use turn signals more often up there and there's not as many last second changes.
Orange County:they just drive crazy fast.About 85MPH is the average speed up there
SD:Weird/stupid drivers I guess.

[NCN]

Our introduction to California driving was quite dramatic. Most of the time when we travel, I will stop at a rest stop just a few miles outside a town and let my husband drive. We ended up in the mountains outside of San Diego on a four lane road that was winding, windy, rocky mountains and no rest stop in sight. There were signs directing us to rest stops, but we never saw one.

So the next thing I knew the two lanes going in our direction changed into four lanes, then six lanes and then 8 lanes and then lanes started stopping and starting. I may have observed wrong because I was driving while I was observing all of this.

I was doing just fine until the road started curving and the lanes were not marked clearly. I have never been so scared driving before in my life, I don't think. I was on a freeway that was strange to me, the road was curving, there were multiple lanes going in my direction and I couldn't tell where the lanes were. It was panic city for myself and my dear husband. We both came to the same conclusion. Help me get off that freeway. So my husband directed me to move over one lane, and another lane, etc. until I was at a place where I could exit the freeway and I did. I exited right onto another freeway. LOL

So we went through the process again. Move over one lane, move over another lane, etc. until there was an exit. This time I exited where there was a Wendy's nearby. He helped me get into the Wendy's parking lot. We got out of the car and a car pulled up with people asking for directions. We showed them all the maps we had and explained that we really did not even know where we were. But we decided since we were at a Wendy's and it was time to eat that we would take a little break.

We walked into the Wendy's (Now you need to realize that my husband is 6'2" and has a Southern accent.) The girl behind the counter asked what we wanted and my husband said, "I want to go home!" The poor girl looked scared and we both started laughing. We told her what we wanted and got our meal and went to a table to eat. I was still shaking from the driving terrors and shook for at least one hour. We decided I would not drive any more as long as we were in California.

So after the meal, I did the maps and he did the driving. My husband is a church deacon and I have heard him say a four letter word very few times in 44 years of marriage--it was about 25 years at that time. We kept going around in circles and it was getting dusty and hard to see the map. We could see the hotel we needed to get to, but there were so many one way roads and driving restrictions that we just kept circling and turning left at Seaworld. About the third time around, we stopped at a stop sign and he started to look at the map and a car came up behind us and laid down on the horn. We had just been there a second, but we had been blown at several times before, for what we thought was no reason. He looked in the rearview mirror and a line of dialogue came out of his mouth that I didn't even recognize.

I have always said that my husband has the patience of Job. Well, California traffic is more than even Job would tolerate.

I love California, but hated driving in San Diego. After about a day, he was an old hand at it and driving with the best of them.

I would like to say that I appreciate all those cars on the freeway missing me when I absolutely did not know what I was doing. While I was driving I was visualizing the headlines: North Carolina Driver Causes 100 Car Accident in California.

[MAK802]

We moved here from NJ in October and are surprised to hear when people mention traffic. I guess it has a different meaning to most. You wanna see traffic? Try driving into NYC using the Lincoln Tunnel either before 9am or around 5pm. That's traffic. Or, go on the NJ Turnpike or GSP on a Friday, around 5. San Diego has no traffic compared to what we had in NJ.

[1AngryTaxPayer]

That pretty much sums it up here is s cal

[ferretkona]

I spent a couple months in downtown Alanta last year.
Traffic here in LA is much the same but the entire trip home during rush hour. Speeds from sitting in one spot for a hour to 80 mph 20 minutes later.
Truely a great problem is when one does not know where they are going, drivers stopping in the middle lane of the freeway, because they have no clue.
No one here uses indicators anymore. When you see a car using them you realize he had them on for a hour already.
That space you leave that you figure is already too close is perfect for a driver to cut you off.

[esmith143]

You are exagerrating. Turn signal usage is lacking (I'd say 50% of drivers use them), and you usually get a wake-up honk if you appear to be be asleep at the green light for more than 5 seconds. I've never been flipped off. Overall, traffic is sometimes slow but quite orderly.