Think You Have A Bad Commute

[MarkRyan]

I drove in LA. The traffic sucks but it's at least not utter FUBAR'd chaos like NYC. I'm not going to front, driving in NYC scares me.

New York fortunately has the benefit of useful public transit and the city is geographically relatively small. If you need to get across town in Los Angeles during rush hour you're just fucked.

[Diff-chan]

That's true, when I lived there I rarely went past Sunset Strip or Santa Monica from Westwood, though, so it wasn't a big deal. A few times I had to get to Watts, that sucked.

[Doc Holliday]

Gotta get that fix, yo!

[Type Ryan]

I forgot about this thread! 3 years later and the D.C. commute still sucks. It's 3rd worst in the country and the same culprit still exists: dumb, timid, arrogant, slow drivers. Hooray for consistency!

[Opaque]

Take away the licenses of Asians. Northern Virginia has the worst drivers I've ever seen, and 90% of them are Asian.

12.5% of Northern Virginians are Asian, your exxageration makes no sense.

[Thief Silver]

REALLY OPAQUE, REALLY. He hasn't posted here in like 2 fucking years.

[Opaque]

Probably because he's so embarassed.

Has it really been 2 years? Honestly with pretty much anyone who was an active member between 2003 and 2006 I don't even notice when they come and go; their names always seem familiar and relevant.

[Diff-chan]

I forgot about this thread! 3 years later and the D.C. commute still sucks. It's 3rd worst in the country and the same culprit still exists: dumb, timid, arrogant, slow drivers. Hooray for consistency!

I think the bigger issue is that the DC metro area (not so much the city itself) has exploded in population the past... two decades or so, without the corresponding increase in infrastructure. Not that building more road really helps the problem. There's just a lot more people on the road.

BTW I don't think I have a bad commute. About 20-25 minutes in the opposite way of traffic.

[Type Ryan]

I think the bigger issue is that the DC metro area (not so much the city itself) has exploded in population the past... two decades or so, without the corresponding increase in infrastructure. Not that building more road really helps the problem. There's just a lot more people on the road.

BTW I don't think I have a bad commute. About 20-25 minutes in the opposite way of traffic.

I have a shitty commute - about 1:15 to travel 32 miles each way. It's pretty ridiculous. While I definitely agree that population growth is a major contributor, drivers are the root cause for accidents (about 90-95% of the time) and for major traffic delays. My biggest pet peeve: 4 lanes of open, unobstructed highway, 65mph posted speed limit (which is bullshit), yet cars will come to a COMPLETE stop. Why? IMO, it's not the number of cars on the road (although I completely accept that a slowdown will occur with high volume), it's the number of bad drivers behind the wheel that cause traffic - research backs that up.

The only way to reduce congestion is by getting more drivers off the road AND by improving the quality of drivers who get on it. Unfortunately, though, getting that done is a whole 'nother story...

[Some Stupid Japanese Name]

I was driving back from Buffalo one evening on the thruway (our thruway is two east bound lanes and two westbound lanes which are separated by a huge median and guardrails) and had to come to a complete stop because of an accident. It took over an hour to travel the 2 miles between where I had to stop and the scene of the accident. The accident WAS ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE EXPRESSWAY. The only reason my side of the highway was backed up was so that assholes could gawk at what was happening on the other side of the road. I hate that shit.