L.A. has world’s worst traffic congestion

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I can attest to this. Thankfully, I’m retired now and can choose what time I hit the streets if I need to go somewhere far from home, avoiding the heaviest morning and evening congestion. Many times, however, I just decide to stay home rather than sit for hours in traffic.
 
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It’s like that. I have to go to downtown LA a lot with the people I work with. Waiting on traffic is bad or good depending on who’s in the car with me. 😄
 
I don’t think they’ve been to some major Asian cities. After spending months working and vacationing in Asia several years ago, I found LA traffic to be a tad more tolerable.
 
There was an article in the New York Times about 6 months ago that claimed that Dhaka, Bangladesh had the worst traffic in the world. As in, it’s at a complete standstill for most of the day and no one can get anywhere or get anything done.
 
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I used to have a job in which I had to travel to many cities in the world. Hong Kong traffic was terrible, and I think Tokyo was worse. Beijing, not as bad, at least for me.

India and Singapore were the absolute worst. India was downright frightening, and I took a train trip in northern India that really scared me - old train, high mountains. I don’t usually get scared in a situation like that.

I’m happy to be in LA now. Yes, it’s congested, but I know it’s not the worst in the world.
 
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This is driven by the perverse nature of property value and where jobs are. My job is in downtown LA, but housing there is expensive and not an environment I wish to live in. Reasonable home prices tend to start about an hour away.
 
HerCrazierHalf said:
This is driven by the perverse nature of property value and where jobs are. My job is in downtown LA, but housing there is expensive and not an environment I wish to live in. Reasonable home prices tend to start about an hour away.
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Is that not true of every city, though?
 
I wouldn’t want to live in downtown LA, either. I live in West Hollywood, in the Hollywood Hills, more specifically, and prices here are very high. I guess I’m not far enough away, but I love it here. I have a 180 degree view and can see from the Hollywood sign to Catalina Island.
 
tomarin said:
Is that not true of every city, though?
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The large cities I know all have very expensive housing downtown (or uptown, in the case of Manhattan) due to a lack of space. But almost all of them are surrounded by slum areas, then, as one gets farther and farther away from downtown, more middle class and upper middle class areas.

That’s my experience. Other people might have a different one.
 
But what’s travel time look like? Average morning traffic means a $350k - $425k home is 1.75 hrs away. $550k+ gets just over an hour. $650k+ for 40 min or under. Give or take extra time for random accidents or rain.

Are other cities like that? I honestly do not know.
 
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ConstantLearner said:
I used to have a job in which I had to travel to many cities in the world. Hong Kong traffic was terrible, and I think Tokyo was worse. Beijing, not as bad, at least for me.

India and Singapore were the absolute worst. India was downright frightening, and I took a train trip in northern India that really scared me - old train, high mountains. I don’t usually get scared in a situation like that.

I’m happy to be in LA now. Yes, it’s congested, but I know it’s not the worst in the world.
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I didn’t think HK was that bad, if you took public transport. Only rich people use cars in HK and Singapore.

Thailand has some very bad traffic, they sell little porta potties you can keep in your car. I thought the Philippines had some of the craziest drivers though.
 
Then you can see where I live too. If you can see the planes landing and taking off from LAX, that’s where I am.
 
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Zzyzx_Road said:
I don’t think they’ve been to some major Asian cities. After spending months working and vacationing in Asia several years ago, I found LA traffic to be a tad more tolerable.
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I highly doubt it is worse than Bangkok.
 
Theo520 said:
Thailand has some very bad traffic, they sell little porta potties you can keep in your car. I thought the Philippines had some of the craziest drivers though.
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Sounds crazy at first, but I guess the portas are a good idea. Where do they use them, though? Not in the car, I hope!
 
christofirst said:
Then you can see where I live too. If you can see the planes landing and taking off from LAX, that’s where I am.
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I live near the top of the mountain. One would take Sunset Blvd. to Sunset Plaza, then up Sunset Plaza to my street, which is a cul-de-sac. Very quiet up here, away from the traffic, spectacular views. And I get to be awakened by the glorious LA sunrise every day.
 
I was an electrician for 30 years, and I worked in many of the high-rise office buildings downtown and in Century City. We would start work early, between 5 and 6 a.m., so I was treated to many glorious sunrises and spectacular views, often from high above the city! In West Hollywood, I worked on the Pacific Design Center, the green building, when it was new. I became pretty adept at taking the lesser-used surface streets to avoid our congested freeways, but I still spent a lot of time on the road.
 
I could never do what you did! I’m not afraid of electricity or heights per se, but I’d be scared to work with electricity. Got shocked on my coffee maker once, and my arm was numb for hours. Horrible feeling! I hike in mountains, take elevators, fly in planes, etc., but no one could pay me enough to work on a building under construction. The PDC buildings aren’t skyscrapers, but they’re high enough. Glad some people, like you, will do it, though. People who do jobs like yours really have my respect.
 
I have been to many big cities around the world. Manila is the worse and it’s getting worser every year. LA is bad but it is nowhere near Manila. Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo, etc., aren’t that bad until you hit surface roads.

I just moved from rural Georgia to Southern California. Atlanta has nothing on LA when it comes traffic. Currently, I am living and working in the Gulf region. Traffic is also bad over here, but it’s manageable.
 
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