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August West
Trad climber
Where the wind blows strange
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Apr 22, 2019 - 12:20pm PT
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Ditto to the motorcycle! I live in SD but its a game changer with lane splitting. A bit hair raising some times but I'm my own traffic pattern. Mostly folks move out of your way. I feel very bad for all those people in cars as I just ride through the I 805 parking lot and get home in 15 minutes. I get 60 mpg to boot.
When someone on a motorcycle lane splits through interstate traffic going 30+ mph faster than the cars, I don't get jealous. I just remind myself that the country has a shortage of healthy organ donors...
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Apr 22, 2019 - 12:35pm PT
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Nice thought but I aver they are far more likely to need an organ than donate one.
And as to the cars causing all their accidents I aver that is a function of their relative speeds.
I also aver that they go down at a much higher rate than cars thereby causing more congestion.
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crusher
climber
Santa Monica, CA
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Apr 22, 2019 - 01:02pm PT
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Jim,
Last Friday you had a triple whammy. Normal Friday afternoon traffic, plus it being a holiday weekend and people going out of town, then on top of it the second weekend of Coachella.
Yes, traffic here SUCKS. I've lived here my whole life and have just seen it get exponentially worse. It takes me nearly an hour each way to and from work - a whopping 15 miles away. It's very difficult to endure, no doubt about it. For us it's a matter of our jobs being here (not replicable elsewhere) as well as immediate family and many longtime, close friendships.
I have many days where I'm sure I'm going to blow a gasket. I close my windows, lock my doors and scream profanities. : )
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skywalker1
Trad climber
co
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Apr 22, 2019 - 01:55pm PT
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I don't lane split going 30+ mph through traffic but I can keep moving. I can also park virtually anywhere.
S...
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Fat Dad
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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Apr 22, 2019 - 03:59pm 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? Agreed, in spades, and then some. The problem with a place like LA is that it's got a lot going for it, so lots of people choose to live here. There's been some good discussion here about why some people have heinous commutes. However, unless affordable high density housing happens, that's not likely to change.
Back to donini's gripe: it does seem like it has gotten worse, especially on Friday afternoons. I took by two sons out to Joshua Tree a few weeks ago. We reserved a hotel with a pool in Yucca Valley so they could splash around Friday night and have less car time on Saturday, when we were driving home. I got off work early and we were on the road by 2. It took FIVE freakin' hours to go from the LAX area to Yucca Valley, a distance that takes only two hours on the weekend. Good fun was had by all on Saturday, but that was a really, really unpleasant afternoon.
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phylp
Trad climber
Upland, CA
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Apr 22, 2019 - 04:02pm PT
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Fat Dad, 2 on a Friday is way too late! 11 am might have been OK. Sad but that’s my experience.
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ontheedgeandscaredtodeath
Social climber
Wilds of New Mexico
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Apr 22, 2019 - 04:07pm PT
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I love L.A., but the traffic is rough. Traffic is no problem in San Francisco, so long as you don't try to enter or leave! Around town it's fine, just no where to park.
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Bargainhunter
climber
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Apr 22, 2019 - 04:16pm PT
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I lived in LA for about 7 years off and on, and visited regularly for 20. Twelve years ago, I dated a woman who lived in WeHo and I lived in Huntington Park/Mt Washington. I worked one of 2 shifts: the 7am-7pm or vice versa, so when I got off work and wanted to visit her I'd get hosed by the traffic one way or another. At times the commute became onerous. She'd introduced my to the concept of "convenient booty". Basically, when you first start dating in LA, if your chosen date lived in an area that was a pain to get to due to traffic, the inconvenience of the booty would be unsustainable and ultimately sabotage the relationship.
Still baffles me when I leave the coast after midnight and head inland on the 10, or travel the 405, you can still meet standstill traffic...yes, after midnight. Ten minute drives can become hour long drives arbitrarily. Ridiculous.
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jeff constine
Trad climber
Ao Namao
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Apr 22, 2019 - 04:38pm PT
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We have Battle Ships here.
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Ksolem
Trad climber
Monrovia, California
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Apr 22, 2019 - 04:58pm PT
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I paid for this picture at the Battleship Iowa Museum. I own the rights.
Both of my parents in that pic are gone now. My StepDad was a Navy man.
Oh, traffic was easy getting there mid-day on a Sunday.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Apr 22, 2019 - 05:10pm PT
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I had the privilege of cruising with the Iowa! To look across a couple hundred yards of water at her was truly awe inspiring.
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tolman_paul
Trad climber
Anchorage, AK
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Apr 22, 2019 - 05:19pm PT
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I can handle about 4 days in LA when visiting my MIL, then I start to get grumpy, especially if I'm drawn into a shopping mall. I moved from the Bay Area to Alaska 22 years ago, have never missed the quality of life in California.
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?
Surprisingly Anchorage AK offers quite a bit. Check on a diverse culture, there are over 100 languages spoken in the school district and our restaurant scene is continuing to grow.
I'm on the South end of town, I can reach anyplace in town in 30 minutes, unless it's commute time which is 7:30-8:30 am and 5-6 pm, then add 10 or at most 20 minutes. I can sit on my deck and have a 100 mile view.
I've had moose, black bear, grizzly bear and lynx walk through my yard. Have seen a mountain goat and wolverine within a mile of the house while walking the dog. I live on the edge of the Chugach mountains, have several trailheads 10-15 minutes from home. The access a huge park for hiking and back country skiing
Fishing? If you think so cal compares to AK, you need to lay off the jazz cabbage. We have that too if it's your thing, been legal since 75.
Winter is long, that's the only downside. But you can cross country ski in town, downhill, back country, heli skiing is within an hour drive tops. Ice climbing, rock climbing, mountain biking all close by.
And drum roll please, you can afford to buy a house!!!
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Don Lauria
Trad climber
Bishop, CA
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Apr 22, 2019 - 06:07pm PT
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Donini,
Though I wasn't born in LA, I was raised there. I lived in the Los Angeles environs from 1935 through 2018. That's a long time.
All I can say is: Thank God for Bishop!
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jeff constine
Trad climber
Ao Namao
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Apr 22, 2019 - 06:19pm PT
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We have Peregrine Falcons here. I own the the photo of it CMAC.
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Apr 22, 2019 - 10:14pm PT
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Long commutes in a car are soul-destroying.
I spent the last 20 years in Seattle, which, while not LA, is well known for its horrible traffic. But it has good bike routes and, for me, the commute was both relaxing, full of health benefit, and faster than driving.
Unfortunately for her, my wife's workplace for the last seven years was out of bicycle-commute range, and she had too endure over an hour of stop-and-go traffic each way. She only worked two weeks per month, but that still adds up to a lot of miles, a lot of hours, and a lot of soul destruction.
But when I retired late last year we sold our Seattle house, and moved to Powell River on the BC coast. Mari kept her job, and now commutes across the border. And this is where it gets really weird...
Powell River, while it is only 65 air miles from Vancouver, is separated from that city by two deep inlets, and because two ferries are involved, those 65 air miles take six hours. And Vancouver is still about 150 miles from her workplace. But she is now spending less time commuting, and driving fewer miles!
The commute from Powell River to her workplace east of Seattle takes about 9 hours and covers 230 miles of road. But she stays in a company condo near the lab for the two work weeks, and then puts in another 9 hours and 230 miles back to PR. (And since about half the time is spent on, or waiting for, the ferries rather than driving, it's not a bad journey.) You can do the additions, but, strange as it seems, she's spending much less time in the car now. And while the company condo isn't a penthouse high above LA or SF, it is only 15 minutes from Index...
So I'm pretty much with Jim on this one. Obviously, many of you have learned to cope with commuting in LA or other similar places, but I sure couldn't do it.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Apr 22, 2019 - 10:21pm PT
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Being run over by cars is a health benefit? 😳
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Gary
Social climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
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Apr 22, 2019 - 11:25pm PT
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There's been some good discussion here about why some people have heinous commutes. However, unless affordable high density housing happens, that's not likely to change.
I'm just a blue collar guy, and maybe I've just been lucky, but I've never had a heinous commute in the 38 years I've been in SoCal.
Tolman_paul, I hear you. Anchorage sounds nice. I know the fishing in Alaska is fantastic, but I have cast for native rainbows in the East Fork of the San Gabriel River, looked up and seen a herd of Bighorn crossing the stream. Nice rainbows, too.
And we complain here when in the dead of winter it hits 42 degrees. One morning last winter there was ice on my windshield! Yikes!
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john hansen
climber
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Apr 22, 2019 - 11:58pm PT
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I live on the Big Island in Hawaii. I bought my Toyota Corrola 2 years ago.
My average speed for two years has been under 35 MPH. Pretty mellow here in Hamakua.
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hooblie
climber
from out where the anecdotes roam
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Apr 23, 2019 - 12:38am PT
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you don't have to live like a refugee
but it's nice to have the option
~~~~
it's been a "pleasure" to have s t r e t c h e d o u t your old ropes jim
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