Dealing with Los Angeles freeway traffic


No matter how much you love LA, ya gotta hate how crowded the freeways always are. I've lived in Phoenix since 1989, and every once in a while I hear a complaint about the rush hour - with jokes about it lasting all day, you know, morning rush hour from 6 to noon, evening rush hour from noon to midnight. And it just makes me smile, because even back in the eighties, there was no rush hour on Los Angeles freeways, they're always very crowded, and very often came to a complete stop. Yes, a parking lot. You could get out of your car and walk around if you wanted to, but no one did. The cars were stationary, and every once in a while you'd see a motorcycle go by, splitting the lanes.

If you're wondering what my solution to this was, sorry, it may not work for you - I simply avoided the freeways. I was fortunate in that I worked close to where I lived, and if I did need to travel some distance, I took out my Thomas Guide map and worked out a route on surface streets. By the way, when I moved to Phoenix, the term "surface street" meant nothing to the people I talked to. Aren't all streets on the surface? Traffic in Phoenix was light, and there were few freeways back then anyway. There are plenty of big, wide freeways now in Phoenix and they tend to move along nicely, even with a huge amount of cars on them. Yes, they slow down, but they rarely come to a complete stop, unless there's an accident. LA freeways would just stop for no reason at all, anytime of the day or night.

But there were times when I did have to take the freeway in Los Angeles, and I carried along a book. When the freeway stopped, I would put the car in park, and read a bit. Eventually traffic started moving again. And though I avoided the freeway most of the time, I did use them often enough to get through several books. People in Phoenix think that I'm joking - they really have no idea. A nice thought! I like Phoenix!

In Los Angeles I liked taking surface streets, and working out a route. In terms of time, it would take just as long as sitting on the freeway, but I enjoyed just being in motion. I like history, and I got to see the Los Angeles that so few people see, because they're sitting on the freeway, looking at tail lights. My travel though Los Angeles was always an historic journey, and I would stop and look at things. You can't be in a hurry in a place that's so crowded!

The ultimate solution, of course, was to move away. Phoenix may be hot in the summer, but the traffic is light, and even in rush hour, the cars on the freeway move. No need to take along a book, and put your car in park!
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