Traffic study ranks Los Angeles

... as world's "most clogged" city:
http://www.southwesternontario.ca/n...nks-los-angeles-as-world-s-most-clogged-city/

Begins:

DETROIT — When it comes to getting stuck in traffic on the way to and from work, Los Angeles leads the world.

Drivers in the car-crazy California metropolis spent 104 hours each driving in congestion during peak travel periods last year. That topped second-place Moscow at 91 hours and third-place New York at 89, according to a traffic scorecard compiled by Inrix, a transportation analytics firm.

The U.S. had half the cities on Inrix's list of the top 10 most congested areas in the world and was the most congested developed country on the planet, Inrix found. U.S. drivers averaged 42 hours per year in traffic during peak times, the study found. San Francisco was the fourth-most congested city, while Bogota, Colombia, was fifth, Sao Paulo ranked sixth and London, Atlanta, Paris and Miami rounded out the top 10.

The Inrix scorecard says Canada's top congested big cities were Montreal in 23rd place with 52 hours spent in congestion, 38th-ranked Toronto at 45 hours, and Vancouver at 30 hours.

Being stuck in traffic cost the average U.S. driver $1,400 last year and nearly $300 billion for all drivers nationwide, Inrix said.

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HA HA. Lots of folks can smugly say "We're slightly/not as bad a you are. Ha Ha!" [gag]

People are willing to put up with it because, that is where the jobs are. I can imagine most of that traffic is work related traffic. Kinda like watching ants.

What is the transit system like in L.A. and are they bike friendly?

That study gives more reason to go e-bike + transit. Ideally non-bus tranist and solely city transit train, again I got no clue if LA has a train system for transit or not. Looks like they do,
https://www.metro.net/


http://metrolinktrains.com/stations/


Over-all it doesnt look too bad for their network of trains, for the Greater L.A. area.

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The province of British Columbia has bike racks on every single bus, big and small, dont matter if its the tiny island of Salt Spring with one bus loop bus line, or a "Small Town - No Town" or a place like Vancouver. Their transit is provincial, unlike Alberta.

Alberta on the other hand, speaking for Calgary Transit, has bike racks on very Very VERY few buses, even the C-Train replacement buses for when the C-Train is down would be lucky if they have one bus out of 10 that has a rack. I talked to a bus driver who said something like it would cost them thousands of dollars a rack. I always thought the problem was Bus Depot space restrictions, but thinking of it now, yes the government is that stupid to get quoted a few g's per rack, if not $5000+. What comes to mind is a pedestrian bridge over the Bow River, cost $30M+. Very pricey custom curved glass, recent replacement of a handful of panels due to vandalism was ~$500k (custom jig needed), indoor lighting replacement to outdoor, the major problem was the welds done in Spain were crap.

Conclusion: Government = Stupid

On the other hand, there was a big curfuffle over installing bike lanes in Cow-Town (Calgary), who knows what the cost of that was.

Anyway I could ramble on, gotta crush some iron at the Y.

deronmoped said:

People are willing to put up with it because, that is where the jobs are. I can imagine most of that traffic is work related traffic. Kinda like watching ants.

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Hehe... "like watching ants". Seen earlier in ES Newz:

How some folks in Washington, DC amuse themselves driving near every day!

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Been stuck in LA traffic enough times. I-405 is called "the 405" because it takes 4 o' 5 hours to get anywhere. My in-laws live in San Diego and I frequently drive there from the SF area, which means going all the way through LA. Sitting in traffic I have frequently observed I could be going a lot faster if I was riding my bike. I think there are plenty of times you could do that in LA and get away with it. Cops will have a hard time chasing you in gridlock on the freeway.

Traffic in the SF bay area is not much better than LA. Just the length of the backups is not as long.

I betcha they got Car-2-Go like service in Los Angeles, that is another great option to save time.
View attachment 1
But they got ZipCar cheaper then Car2Go.

Membership from:
$7/mo or $70/yr
Driving rates from:
$8-10/hr



Unlock over 350 cars in the city. Reserve by the hour or day and run errands, visit friends, or venture out on a road trip. Choose your car and choose a route. From Westwood to Hollywood, Santa Monica to USC, or Downtown to Universal City.

Want even more flexibility? Find new Zipcars with open-ended destinations—one-way or round trip—with unlimited reservation extensions and guaranteed parking on both ends. (Yep, really.)

Shopping at The Grove? Spending the day on the Santa Monica Pier? Picking someone up from LAX? Get the ins and outs of membership and hit the road.

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Be good for something where you need to go out somewhere, get/do something then come back to end the trip back in the zone. A little more time involved (~10 minutes) would be car rental weekend rate, they advertise $10/day but I've never seen that, the lowest I used to get renting all the time was $25/day, w\ unl km's.

I used one to go from downtown Calgary at night to the outter limits of the end-trip zone. I find it much more relaxing then walking to, waiting for the train when the homeless people are out. I dont use Car2Go as much anymore because they just recently got rid of the 4 door Mercedes Benz C2xx series cars that I absolutely loved. Being well over 6' tall it had plenty of room, the Smart cars I can still fit comfortably in, but it does feel restricted.

Definitely one of the worst places to share the road with traffic. Most drivers are on cell phones or texting, lots of them drunk. Very few people ride the train. Bus is more popular locally. The river trails are somewhat ok though, not recommended for night travel.