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WBraun
climber
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Apr 21, 2019 - 05:36pm PT
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One time I'm down there drivin on Lincoln Blvd Santa Monica and these two local dudes pull up at the stop light and ask what the cool noise coming from my Jeep Cherokee.
I told them it's the studded tires on all four tires (it's February that day).
They asked where can we get some lol .....
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 21, 2019 - 06:10pm PT
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I went to Fontana because I was trying to get out of that godforsaken town and I 15 went thru it on the way north. At that point the traffic ahead was gridlocked and I gave up. I got a motel and got up at 4:00 am and the traffic was doable.
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apogee
climber
Technically expert, safe belayer, can lead if easy
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Apr 21, 2019 - 06:33pm PT
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Timing, timing, timing. It's everything.
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 21, 2019 - 06:42pm PT
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If timing was everything how come all of the locals who were clogging up the freeways all got it wrong?
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apogee
climber
Technically expert, safe belayer, can lead if easy
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Apr 21, 2019 - 06:42pm PT
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LA is loaded with sheep, like everywhere else. Don't be a sheep.
Edit: Like several have mentioned, the key is getting to know the traffic flow in the parts of LA you have to be in, then plan your travel around it- either avoid the high traffic flows altogether (best option), or try to plan to be moving the opposite direction at the peak travel time.
My preferred strategy, by far, is to just avoid peak flow times completely. If you find your timing to be off, find a place to kill time until it lightens up- get something to eat, do some errands, etc. Way less stressful than sitting in your rig going nowhere...for hours.
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jeff constine
Trad climber
Ao Namao
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Apr 21, 2019 - 07:17pm PT
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Spider Savage, UBER & LYFT DRIVERS do not know the way to save driving time.
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Trump
climber
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Apr 21, 2019 - 08:56pm PT
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My best strategy is to try to not need things I’m gonna need to complain about having to pay for.
But I’m not all that convinced that complaining detracts from quality of life - probably more the opposite. Those locals are probably just complaining about it on a different website.
Me? I have the intellectual and moral foresight to like chocolate, but some sheeple people prefer that god forsaken vanilla.
I wonder why I need to frame my own choices as superior to other people’s choices? These shared values prolly play well in our little tribe.
If you’re blessed to have a life you like, live that one. If you want to learn firsthand how to live with traffic, go for it! Other people seem like they’ve been able to manage that one and I’ll bet you can too.
Other peoples lives don’t need to make sense to us, they just need to make sense to them. Our opinions of other people’s lives and other people’s choices maybe doesn’t matter quite as much as we think it might.
But if we want to understand them in a positive optimistic approving affirming way - if we want to understand what’s right with other people rather than what’s wrong with them - maybe we can understand them, if we try.
But it’s always a lot easier to not understand, maybe like it’s easier to get stuck in traffic than it is to avoid it.
Heck, even I, like you, have been stuck in traffic.
And while we’re stuck in traffic, maybe best to confirm our own choices and our tribes choices as superior. When winter comes, the lone wolf dies, but the pack survives. But maybe we want to give more of our approval to ourselves than believing that about ourselves would entail.
It’s a premier climbing site - let’s talk about the traffic. Makes enough sense to our little tribe for us to do it. Ok.
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rottingjohnny
Sport climber
Sands Motel , Las Vegas
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Apr 21, 2019 - 08:59pm PT
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Nice shot Jeff....
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NutAgain!
Trad climber
South Pasadena, CA
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Apr 22, 2019 - 12:03am PT
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People mostly commute for one of these reasons:
1. Perceived economic necessity... they have a family to support, want to be further from urbanity (noise/crime/people density), but must travel to wherever they can get a job. Maybe bought a house in one place closer to where they worked , kids have friends there, but then job changes.
2. People have a passion for a career choice (e.g. entertainment industry, cancer research, building aerospace technologies), and there are few choices where they can follow that passion. Either they live in a challenging place near the job (e.g. K-town might seem fun as a 20-something person into partying, but quickly gets old if you want to walk to school with your kids), or pick a good neighborhood to raise a family (as far away as you can stand to drive)while also keeping the job that excites the career passion, then pay for it with commute time. Or, maybe a couple each with career passions have jobs in opposite directions with limited options, neither wants to sacrifice their career calling, so they buy a house in the middle and commute in opposite directions.
I feel lucky getting paid well enough while working from home, looking out from South Pasadena toward the northern San Gabriels, the Verdugo Hills, the Santa Monica’s, and all the way to the hills north of Ojai (near Ventura and Santa Barbara) on a clear day... but my wife crosses downtown LA twice daily because she needs to be there in person to run a research lab, oversee the work of post docs and PhD students and undergrads, and occasionally teach classes. She manages by shifting her work schedule, going in ~10am or later and working from home before that, then coming home ~10pm (sometimes earlier sometimes later depending on her current deadlines). That works for now, but with kids in the picture it would force her toward normal commute times and she would spend a larger chunk of time in traffic. With kids she would probably have morning time with them and then not see them awake in evenings on weekdays.
That’s a price to pay for being attached to an intellectual endeavor (with the opportunity to expand human knowledge and change human experience) more than a lifestyle. Folks who don’t have that attachment don’t get it, just like most of our non-climbing family and friends don’t get the fascination with climbing.
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hooblie
climber
from out where the anecdotes roam
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Apr 22, 2019 - 02:07am PT
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i start from here and rarely arrive
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 22, 2019 - 06:13am PT
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Yeah hooblie....the traffic was pretty light when I went thru Williams on I 40.
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Gary
Social climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
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Apr 22, 2019 - 08:35am PT
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It's an incredible city full of incredible people from the all over the world. They bring their food and music with them.
I live a 10 minute drive from one of the most incredible art collections in the world.
It's a short train ride to one of the best concert halls and orchestras in the world.
At the same time, I live at the base of a mountain range with 8-10,000' peaks. I can walk out my door with a backpack on and walk those mountains for days. If I wanted to, I could walk to Canada from my house and never leave trail.
I can fish for native rainbow trout in the midst of big horn sheep only 25 miles from downtown Los Angeles.
Are their many other cities like it?
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Sredni Vashtar
Social climber
California
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Apr 22, 2019 - 10:27am PT
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"At the same time, I live at the base of a mountain range with 8-10,000' peaks. I can walk out my door with a backpack on and walk those mountains for days. If I wanted to, I could walk to Canada from my house and never leave trail."
Many folks don't realize LA is a mountain town. I dont like the whole but i can tolerate parts. The San Gabes make it tolerable for sure
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Ksolem
Trad climber
Monrovia, California
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Apr 22, 2019 - 10:36am PT
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1. Perceived economic necessity... they have a family to support, want to be further from urbanity (noise/crime/people density), but must travel to wherever they can get a job. Maybe bought a house in one place closer to where they worked , kids have friends there, but then job changes.
The great majority of people who commute into L.A. from places like Landcancer, Palmdale, and the Inland Empire do so because their job is in L.A., but they cannot afford housing there. The heinous traffic is due to the lack of usable transit, and the cost of living in the city.
Edit:
Friend, I lived in West LA & Santa Monica for over 25 years. There was/is always smog
Were you here in the 80's? Most cars had no pollution controls. There was no attempt to moderate what came out of the tailpipe. It was a rare day after a big storm that you could see the mountains from Pasadena. Eye watering. Smog alerts; stay inside, don't go out for a run. The improvement has been amazing.
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Gary
Social climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
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Apr 22, 2019 - 11:41am PT
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The improvement has been amazing.
Indeed! Even my ultra-libertarian friend has admitted that the Clean Air Act wasn't so bad an idea.
edit: Oh, shit! Is that political?
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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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Apr 22, 2019 - 11:44am PT
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Over the past five years, Portland has graduated from a town to a real city and is developing serious traffic issues and Seattle has always been a nightmare. I suspect all the cities up and down the entire west coast are now a royal pain in the ass to get around.
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capseeboy
Social climber
wandering star
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Apr 22, 2019 - 11:45am PT
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^^^^^Gary.
uh, well, yes it is. D'oh!
Me, a Brown knowser all.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Apr 22, 2019 - 11:48am PT
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How can u talk about traffic without going off the deep end?
Just sat at a number of lights with a dozen cars waiting spewing for one car to cross. Retarded city planners put a stop sign or light in as often as possible cause that’s job security. Drove 2000 miles in Norway last summer and stopped at maybe 10 lights. Can’t remember a stop sign. Roundabouts would save hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil DAILY in the US, not to mention the smog and brake particulates.
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Splater
climber
Grey Matter
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Apr 22, 2019 - 12:19pm PT
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One other reason for California commutes being so special:
Many people have owned their home long enough that if they moved,
their property taxes would go up by two-fold, or four-fold, or eight fold, or up to 15 fold.
So the state is subsidizing them by $1000 to $20,000 per year to stay put, and endure the commute. There are hardly any toll roads.
Due to perverse incentives of prop 13,
my neighbor moved back to California when he inherited a minimal 888 sq ft house. He paid nothing for the house. His property taxes are $550 per year. If he sold the house the new owner would pay at least $7200 per year in taxes alone. The same scale is true for more costly homes.
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