Los Angeles is #1 in Worst Traffic in the World
@DeborahDiane (40321)
Laguna Woods, California
February 6, 2018 1:17pm CST
Once again Los Angeles has something to brag about. We don't just have bad traffic. We have the worst traffic in the world!
If you have ever planned to leave the Los Angeles area on a Friday night, you know just how bad it is. It can easily take you two hours to get outside the metropolitan area, before you really feel as if you are leaving the city behind.
Lucky for us, we are happy to stay in our own neighborhood most of the time. There is very little traffic involved in the majority of our activities, whether my husband is headed to the golf course or I am headed to the beach.
My husband is also able to work from home and, of course, I write my retirement blog from home.
I feel sorry, however, for the millions of people who must get onto our freeways every morning and evening in order to commute between home and a job. I know it must be very stressful.
12 people like this
13 responses
! I have no doubts about this - but living here all our lives, I guess we've come to deal with it - in fact, a quiet, no traffic freeway would be pretty freaky 
.
@much2say (56063)
• Los Angeles, California
8 Feb 18
@DeborahDiane What freeways are you near? We are in the middle of the San Fernando Valley, so that puts us in between the 118, 405, and 101. The 405 and 101 are never carless!
1 person likes this
@DeborahDiane (40321)
• Laguna Woods, California
9 Feb 18
@much2say - We are near the 405 - 5 split, sometimes called the 405 Y or the 5 Y by the traffic reporters. It often gets backed up, which is why I avoid it when I can.
1 person likes this
@DeborahDiane (40321)
• Laguna Woods, California
8 Feb 18
@much2say - You are right. Even at midnight, on those rare occasions when we have been out, there is an amazing number of cars on the road. It would be freaky to see an empty freeway.
2 people like this
@DeborahDiane (40321)
• Laguna Woods, California
8 Feb 18
@Plethos - You are absolutely right. The worst part of driving somewhere like Las Vegas or Laughlin is just getting free of the LA traffic. It is insane.
1 person likes this
@DeborahDiane (40321)
• Laguna Woods, California
9 Feb 18
@Plethos - Yes, we have gone to Las Vegas on the weekends, we have had heavy traffic all the way to Victorville and, sometimes, Barstow. It is crazy!
1 person likes this
@Plethos (13581)
• United States
8 Feb 18
@DeborahDiane - that freeway traffic follows you into victorville and barstow. its terrible!
1 person likes this
@changjiangzhibin89 (16789)
• China
9 Feb 18
It seems that the traffic snarls in a big city is a given.Fortunately,I live in a small city with a population of 0.8 million.
1 person likes this
@changjiangzhibin89 (16789)
• China
10 Feb 18
@DeborahDiane I think it is because you have more cars than ours.However here there is a growing trend towards private cars.
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@DeborahDiane (40321)
• Laguna Woods, California
9 Feb 18
Wow! A population of 0.8 million is still a lot of people. We get a lot of traffic around here, even though we live in a suburb of Los Angeles.
1 person likes this
@DeborahDiane (40321)
• Laguna Woods, California
11 Feb 18
@changjiangzhibin89 - Yes, I have heard on the news here in the US that China is modernizing very rapidly and, along with that, you are getting both the good and the bad that we have experienced ... like more traffic.
1 person likes this
@aneekebeth (45)
• Lodi, California
3 May 18
I go to school in the Bay Area one day a week.... traffic is terrible. Probably not as bad as LA. What I find most annoying is people in the far-left lane leaving enormous gaps between them and the car in front. I'm not saying it should be bumper to bumper, but these people refuse to switch lanes when everyone else around them are moving much faster. I bet traffic would improve if people respected the "passing lane" and learned how to merge using the zipper effect.
1 person likes this
@aneekebeth (45)
• Lodi, California
4 May 18
@DeborahDiane While I wait at the Bay Bridge on the days I go to school... I wonder how many cars can fit in that little piece of land before it starts sinking... lol.
1 person likes this
@DeborahDiane (40321)
• Laguna Woods, California
4 May 18
@aneekebeth - Ha ha! Now THAT is something to think about ... San Francisco sinking because of the weight of all the cars!
@DeborahDiane (40321)
• Laguna Woods, California
4 May 18
@aneekebeth - I am sure you are right about how people could drive better in traffic. I have found the Bay Area traffic to be horrible ... certainly as bad as LA traffic. In the 70s, I lived in the Bay Area, and moving around from San Francisco to Berkeley was sooo much easier than it is today!
1 person likes this
@LadyDuck (472060)
• Switzerland
7 Feb 18
I know that this is what people living there think, but the Mexico City is considered to be the worst city on the planet, followed by Indonesia's capital city, Jakarta and Istanbul. I can confirm that Istanbul is horrible, a lot worse than Los Angeles, where we have been several times.
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@LadyDuck (472060)
• Switzerland
8 Feb 18
@DeborahDiane There is not a solution, Los Angeles is a big city, it takes more time to drive long distance when the traffic is bad, but at least is not as scary as it is in Istanbul or some other countries. The photo above looks a lot like our highway when the 60,000 Italians come in every morning to work in Switzerland.
1 person likes this
@DeborahDiane (40321)
• Laguna Woods, California
8 Feb 18
@LadyDuck - I have driven in Mexico City and it drove us crazy! I agree that there are a lot of challenges in driving in those cities. I've had friends live in both Jakarta and Istanbul and complained about the traffic and the driving laws, especially in Jakarta. However, I think this study was based on how long commuters spend in gridlocked traffic every day, moving very little. Supposedly, it has become worse in Los Angeles with thousands of cars added every few months. I don't know the solution, but there must be something we could do.
1 person likes this
@DeborahDiane (40321)
• Laguna Woods, California
9 Feb 18
@LadyDuck - Wow! I had no idea that you had that much traffic from Italy! That must be very unpleasant, both for the commuters and the residents.
1 person likes this
@dentistnd (58)
• Bogota, Colombia
14 Feb 18
Not only the worst traffic, it has the worst public transportation, it takes the whole life to go anywhere, if you don't have a car is kind of impossible to be a tourist.
Two options 1. be in traffic for several hours or 2. spend a lot of time walking+taking public transportation
1 person likes this
@DeborahDiane (40321)
• Laguna Woods, California
15 Feb 18
@dentistnd - I agree. Everywhere we go, outside our immediate neighborhood, we need to think about the best time of day to be on the roads and how to minimize our exposure to heavy traffic. It can be very challenging.
1 person likes this
@DeborahDiane (40321)
• Laguna Woods, California
8 Feb 18
@maezee - Twenty years ago, I would have said the same thing ... yet here I am.
@toniganzon (72533)
• Philippines
7 Feb 18
My grandparents used to live in LA City but they don't go anywhere far. They just go to their work, my grandfather at the City Hall and grandma at a hospital just near their home. So I've never heard of them complain about traffic.
And I thought I had worse when I lived in Bangkok. Traffic jam there was terrible.
1 person likes this
@DeborahDiane (40321)
• Laguna Woods, California
8 Feb 18
@toniganzon - Traffic anywhere is miserable, whether it is the worst city in the world or not.
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@RasmaSandra (80784)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
6 Feb 18
That would make me nuts. I could never live in a place with so much traffic.
1 person likes this
@DeborahDiane (40321)
• Laguna Woods, California
8 Feb 18
@RasmaSandra - It can be difficult but, if you love living here, you have to learn to deal with it.
1 person likes this
@DeborahDiane (40321)
• Laguna Woods, California
8 Feb 18
@JudyEv - We only rarely have to deal with traffic, because most of our driving is local. However, when we do have to drive into Los Angeles, it is crazy!
1 person likes this
@JohnRoberts (109846)
• Los Angeles, California
6 Feb 18
So much for us to be proud of! How a spin on the 405?
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@DeborahDiane (40321)
• Laguna Woods, California
8 Feb 18
@JohnRoberts - Ha! I have a daughter who lives in Irvine. I can drive on the regular streets or go just three exits up the 405 to her house. I drive on the streets. The 405 is nearly always a parking lot at the times when I visit her.
1 person likes this
@DeborahDiane (40321)
• Laguna Woods, California
8 Feb 18
@Courage7 - You get used to it, although it takes time.
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