Nobody knows what traffic is like in the C.A. The city of Angels has it worst, I think, but up here in the Bay Area is sucketh almost as much. And now Sacramento is awful, too, just because it felt left out.

Crazy state.

Be gentle with him. He's a newbie.

I know it's been done . . . but, I LOVE LA!

Random, but this blog title just got "Only Happy When It Rains" stuck in my head . . . only now i am singing it "It Only Happens When It Raaaaaaains" . . . lovely.

Traffic is shitty no matter where you live, if you have to sit in it for long enough. I live about 40 minutes from work (if there were no traffic) but I spend 4 hours in the car every day. Two to two and a half hours each way, topping out at about 15 miles per hour, but usually under 10. I don't know anyone with a worse commute than me.

I always thought you were teasing about the rain/traffic thing. Then I visited San Diego and it rained. People really did freak out and my cab ride to the airport gave me a new batch of gray hairs!

I hope to never ever have a commute anything like most people's. California traffic is just mind-boggling, even on the weekends! I guess you really do have to Embrace The Suck and be proud of it. Hardy souls! Like the pioneers!

I'm sorry - can I just hijack to knitting for one teeny second? I don't know who else to ask. I'm a smart girl - and three different people have tried to teach me to knit - but I simply cannot get the hang of it. Is there some kind of remedial book?

Awww, I feel sorry for the New Guy. He is in for a rude awakening the first time it rains out there...

Great party advice...wonder what the Nashville equivalent is (if you're not trying to break into the music business)?

P.S. I just noticed "litterchure" on the right side of your page...HA HA HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I would be crazy with a capital CRAY!
Traffic sucks.

....and not a day goes by in LA that traffic is NOT discussed. No one even needs to be present. I even talk to myself about it.

I have lived in LA, DC and have worked in New Jersey and I think LA has the worst traffic, DC the worst drivers, and NJ the most confusing roads.

Aileen...I'm not sure there is a Nashville equivalent. Though I usually find that "So? Where are you from?" is pretty good since I rarely meet anyone FROM here.

And, see, I laugh when Nashvillians complain about the traffic....and the only thing I have to compare it to is Dallas! Folks, if you do not routinely put your car in park on the highway, it is NOT traffic.

I moved from the OC up to Portland. When people start complaining about traffic here, I laugh right in their face. They do not know how good they have it, seriously. They don't even speed up here.

Pause to have a moment of sympathy for the folks in Winona, Minnesota. Everyone in Minnesota is a little skittish about bridge safety these days, but they had their bridge over the Mississippi shut down with virtually no notice. It extended a lot of folks' commutes from a few minutes to a couple of hours. So, no matter where you live, commuting's a headache.

However, I don't think people in L.A. have the option of kayaking to work, like one guy in Winona I heard about.

Since I work for myself I have purposely set things up so that I don't have to drive in traffic. For one client I kept getting stuck on the highway no matter when I left so I just found a new route. I would rather be driving on city streets with stop lights than sitting on the highway- gotta keep moving!

Robin- try this book to get you started http://www.amazon.com/Teach-Yourself-Visually-Knitting/dp/0764596403/ref=sip_rech_dp_10 Then buy Laurie's book for some projects to get you started.

Robin....try www.knittinghelp.com

Amy has videos on there that show you how to do just about everything (and you can just play them over and over and over). I think they are so easy to follow and she does each thing several times.

Good luck! Once you get the hang of it, it will be your new obsession!

I always want to laugh at the Louisiana relations when they complain about the traffic!

My friend from Boston said California drivers can't drive uphill. I sort of ignored him when he said that, but ever since then I've always noticed that when I get to a hill, traffic stops..... and I live in the Bay Area. Lots of hills.

Of course that doesn't explain the Bay Bridge.

If I'm sittin', I'm knittin'....even in traffic!

No one has mentioned Atlanta traffic, which can be pretty nerve wracking, especially early in the morning when you have to pee and you're stuck in bumper to bumper traffic moving at minus five miles an hour. However, I've never been in LA, and I believe y'all when you say it's the worst in the country.

Yea, so I grew up here in Van Nuys (Lake Balboa ahem) and I forgot about traffic in my 9 yr living in Philadelphia stint. I come back and holy hell...LA has the WORST traffic ever. I can say that cause I drove across the country and hit many a city at rush hour and only here in LA did it take me 30 mins to go 4 miles.

I still wouldn't change a thing.

Marie, I'm also in Atlanta and I'll vouch for you. Traffic stinks here too! I live 5 miles from my office and it routinely takes me 45 minutes or more.

So ... is New Guy cute? Married? We want to know more.

Also, who in their right mind would try to *drive* from Santa Monica to the valley on a Friday afternoon? At $5 a gallon?

Hey Purl! I found a picture someone took of the crazyhigh gas prices at "Thrifty" (which we don't have in Canada, and by the way, this is when you need to be metric; prices look way lower in litres). Check it out at http://laist.com/2008/06/04/found_in_la_not.php

But I guess in LA, you can't really walk to work, eh?

Santa Monica freeway on a Friday evening, rain, crabby kid in backseat. I told somebody in Vegas that I literally went one mile (ONE MILE!) in an hour and five minutes and they didn't believe me. You believe me, though, don't you?

Actually, Bevvy, I don't live in Atlanta. I've just been through there during morning rush hour. I live in the tiny metropolis of Tifton. The only time we've ever had a traffic jam is when Bill Clinton stopped by on the campaign trail in 1992. Traffic was backed up for, oh I don't know, a whole mile. :) P.S. I'm a Leo, too.

CK used to commute around the M25 for work (London Orbital) which often allowed him to do other stuff while stuck in traffic - tidy his car, sort his cds, build home extensions, that kind of thing. Then he moved down here and the traffic jam on his way to work was the cows crossing the road to the milking parlour!

I lived in LA from 09/89 - 12/90. I came from a college town in the Midwest, where a 30-mile trip takes... 30 minutes.

It was shocking when a 30 mile trip in LA took an hour and a half in GOOD traffic. And it rained three times while I was there (once with that mysterious loud sky noise thing that terrified the villagers) and let me tell you they DO NOT KNOW how to drive on anything but desert-dry asphalt. Heh.

If you were sitting in traffic and having a terrible, terrible day, would you a) go straight home after work and write and go to bed, or b) go to stitch n' bitch where you might not talk much because you don't want people to sense your forlorness, but it might help take your mind off of things?

I live in NY NJ area - it is crazy but not as bad as what I have seen in LA. Drove from LA Financial District to Pasadena at 4 pm - that was nuts!

I lived in LA my whole life, until I moved to the Midwest a few years ago (don't ASK!). They actually complain about the traffic here in NEBRASKA! I try to explain what LA traffic is life, but I just can't do it justice. My standby story is to tell them about my communte from the San Grabiel Valley to UCLA. I used to spend 20-45 minutes in ONE INTERSECTION (crossing Ventura Blvd to get onto Beverly Glen).

They totally think I'm exaggerating.

The worst traffic I have seen was the summer I lived in Atlanta (never been to LA). That summer, I kept a file, nail clippers, nail polish, and nail polish remover in my car. Each week there would be at least one drive home where traffic would be totally stopped and I would take the time and give myself a manicure. My nails looked better that summer than they have at any other point in my life, all due to traffic.

When I was moving to Oregon from LA, for some INSANE reason, everyone kept trying to warn me about the traffic. Puh-leeze! In LA, if you are moving, you count it as a good day!

However, Seattle is bad. It was ranked third behind NY and LA.

You may be right about the traffic in LA, but there is one spot that's got you beat.

That's Georgetown in DC.

I went to a midnight movie there with a friend, and could not get him moving. He kept saying that it's MIDNIGHT, so the traffic can't be all that bad.

When we got there, it was bumper-to-bumper, only moving occasionally.

Then, we came out of the movie at 4 am, and the same traffic jam was there. He was amazed.

That traffic jam has been there for 20 or 30 years. Nonstop. It doesn't go away for the middle of the night or holidays. It's permanent.

I don't think I could survive in CA. I remember it a little bit from growing up in various areas in the 80s, but I don't drive and believe that 2 hours is walking distance. If the city isn't set up for public transit or the pedestrian lifestyle, I think I wouldn't last a month.

You don't have to be from out of So cal to be ignorant of the traffic in Metro LA.
My Lakewood born mom won't drive freeways.
My sister works/lives in the O.C. with a 30 minute commute.
I used to drive from Seal Beach to USC to work every damn day before moving to Culver city with my darling hubs. It would take me SIX HOURS to do a 30 minute drive home on Fridays.
And they STILL won't forgive me for refusing to move back down to Seal Beach before our first child is born because they refuse to understand that it would mean that (unless we BOTH changed jobs) we'd NEVER see each other or our baby.
Ah well. The GOOD news is that while they both refuse to see how the commute should stop ME--they both think a trip to the Sahara would be faster that a drive up to bug us. So YAY traffic!

This discussion reminds me of the cabbie in Donald E. Westlake's crime caper novels. Sure, he's in New york, not LA, but the way he talks about traffic? Sounds very LA!

Have you seen how NBC is showing reruns of Emergency? I was watching an episode and it just strikes you how clear that LA traffic was! Take a peek and giggle:

http://www.nbc.com/Vintage_Shows/Emergency/video/episodes.shtml

And now, everybody can get jealous: I live in Hamburg, Germany. Well, we have also traffic, and my colleages from the suburbs sometimes need 45-60 minutes to drive to work in the inner town in moving (!) traffic jam. And there are also many who prefer train or underground (although a little expensive but very comfortable).

But me, I live in the center near the harbour (nice flat without balcony or garden, though. But Hamburg is the most green city of Germany, trees and parks over and over the whole town )and I go by bicycle in 4 minutes to my working place!

I never ever would live in a city where it would take me more than an hour to get to work, because that would be every day lifetime stolen from me and my family. And when you raise kids this is of major priority. And in Germany the authorities take care about public traffic more than in your country. I think this is due to your car industry and philosophy.

Once you had visited Hamburg and feel the life quality with fresh air and green nature, Laurie, you probably would not consider L.A. as a good place to live any more.

Greetings!
Paula

The nature of the beast- many American cities were designed (if you can call it that) after the automobile era started so it was OK to live farther away from your job- and I believe a lot of the highways/interstates were designed for a much smaller amount of traffic than they are handling. Our Big Dig in Boston caused a lot of headaches during its creation but it actually has helped *some* commutes.

That's a good explanation, thank you. But neither were ours over here in Europe,but many new highways have been built and are still being built, the traffic budjet of our government is enormous.
I think the distances in your country are simply so much longer, and your fuel was far to cheep for decades, so there was no need to think about alternatives. I think things will be changing in your country, too, because of the worldwide climate problems and rising of fuel costs. The day when nobody can get to work any more because traffic broke down completely will have to lead to new forms for example sharing a car to work, or regional trains.

By the way, what does "Bid Dig" mean?

..sorry, I forgot to insert my name in the previous comment.
Paula

Hmm. I wonder how it compares to, say, inner city London where you have the combination of small, old roads which criss cross in idiosyncratic fashion making no sense whatsoever combined with stupid amounts of traffic AND ludicrous amounts of tourists. Na - I'm guessing LA is worse.

Traffic in L.A. is awful...but the worst traffic I have ever experienced is in Northern Virginia. When I lived and worked there, I routinely got stuck for hours in heavy traffic at completely random times, like 11:00 on Tuesday night or weekend afternoons. (Actually, traffic was usually worse between 2 and 7PM on Saturdays than during the weekday afternoon rush!) And when I say stuck in traffic, I mean NOT MOVING AT ALL. When I was in L.A., the traffic actually crawled forward, a little bit at a time. Maybe it's gotten worse since then? I don't know...but I do know that L.A. deserves the award for Worst Traffic/Drivers In Rainy Weather. Insane.

Anyway, I recently moved to New York City, and I need a car for my job, which requires me to drive out to Long Island regularly. Everyone here said that the traffic was horribly worse than everywhere else, but so far I've found it is a piece of cake compared to NoVA.

I will say that all three areas take great pride in their awful traffic and each considers itself the worst ever. Traffic and commuting is always a hot topic for discussion!

LA is the only city I've ever been to where the residents have to talk themselves into loving it.

LOL. We recently moved from OC to DC, and we crack up every time someone complains about the traffic here. Its not that they don't have "traffic", but the perception of what is "bad traffic" and what is "far away" is totally different.

Out here a 10 minute drive is far away whereas I used to consider anything under 30 minutes as close by.

LOL. We recently moved from OC to DC, and we crack up every time someone complains about the traffic here. Its not that they don't have "traffic", but the perception of what is "bad traffic" and what is "far away" is totally different.

Out here a 10 minute drive is far away whereas I used to consider anything under 30 minutes as close by.

I had to think about this for a minute before I posted.

Yes, LA has the worst traffic ever because there are so many people out there. There has never been a time when I've been on the 405 and not had it been bumper to bumper traffic. The term rush hour is meaningless because there is traffic ALL DAY LONG.

However, I think Boston has the worst highway/road system on the planet. It does not make any sense at all. The roads wind this way and that, seeming to go nowhere. Plus the Big Dig made it all worse. Every time I go into the city the roads have changed so you never know which way you need to go. GPS systems are worthless in Boston. The roads just confuse them to the point that you think they are going to explode from all the craziness.

I live in Atlanta, but I worked in Delaware once for about six months. I was driving back on a Friday afternoon, via US-50, around the DC beltway, and down 95.

I hit the beltway at 4:30. The next time I exceeded 10mph was at 9:45. I don't know if this is normal, maybe it was a holiday or something, but I sat in DC traffic that afternoon for five hours. There was one point where I went maybe half a mile in an hour.

Maybe I've been desensitized, but traffic doesn't bother me nearly as much now.

The worst traffic I have ever experienced was in a little town called Ulladulla (I kid you not - google it) on the south coast of NSW, Oz. They had the blessing of the fleet (fishing boats) that weekend and OMG. Town is 5 km long and took over an hour to navigate the town centre .... Even Sydney, NSW, Oz, was not as bad as that (half an hour to drive 1km down a hill and through three sets of traffic lights)
I think someone else can drive for me in LA if we visit :-)

No, SACRAMENTO has THE worst traffic on the planet. And definitely the worst drivers. Statistics prove it. DH and I get California driving stats every year and Sacramento is always tops in accidents. Even with LA and SF having way more drivers.

I can be talked into driving anywhere on Earth, except Sacramento.