The great peril of city life

[The Cid]

Shit. I need a car.

I need to procure a car, get it registered in Boston, get it insured, and find a nightly parking spot. I need...a fucking car. Excuse my swearing, I know I promised to cut down, but you have to understand city driving. City driving is dependent on traffic patterns going smoothly on open roads. In well-organized conditions this driving is perilous. In cities that have their traffic's shit together, it's still bad.

Boston, however, is a city of road construction, one-way streets, a subway system that becomes part of three of the city's biggest streets, a parking crisis going on three decades old, and approximately 6 billion illegal left turn signs. YOU try driving in a city that doesn't allow you to make a left turn. I dare you. But all that aside, this is not a local problem.

I sold my old car when I moved to Boston. Growing up in a suburb, I used to drive a lot, but knowing Boston I decided to rely entirely on public transportation. Unfortunately, due to the extreme cost of land downtown, most of the lucrative jobs here are not on "the T." If I had gone to, say, Pepperdine in LA, or American in DC, I'd have done the same thing. There are just some cities where you don't want to drive if you don't have to. Los Angeles, Washington DC, San Francisco...you know what? Let's include the whole state of California. If you want to know why, I refer you to the Cake song "Long Line of Cars." Point being, in some cities you just dread driving.

...And now I need a damn car.

Traffic ahoy!

[Tigger]

I like the song well enough...but have always wondered just what it was about. I figured a funeral!

[LQDMTL]

[quote="Lucksi";p="703032"]The bombing in WWII helped the problem[/quote]
That little gem has brought me nothing but giggles this morning.

[The Cid]

[quote="Lucksi";p="703032"]Hey, that sounds like Düsseldorf which is the state capitol. Almost no left turns (none in the center) so you have to take three rights. Parking is impossible for out of towners. People who live there simply park their car in the second row.

Of course, the problems there are for quite some time longer since it was founded somewhen around 1100. The bombing in WWII helped the problem, but now it´s just horrible again.[/quote]

Yeah, that sounds pretty rough dude.

Over here, we spent like 20 years building a very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very expensive tunnel system to try and alleviate traffic.

...It's still going on. And what's finished isn't exactly world-renowned for its structural integrity. It also backs up very easily, so it doesn't do what it's supposed to do. But the new bridge looks cool.

I empathize with European drivers, who have nightmares about traffic that those of us Stateside would never even consider. Driving in nearly any major European city looks like an exercise in futility to me.

[The Cid]

I once saw an image from a big blizzard that hit Boston.

Two feet of snow engulfs every car on a street. ...A street with parking meters. So there's a meter maid, diving through the piles of snow with one of those bright orange parking tickets. Holes in the snow over neighboring cars suggests she's doing it to all of them.

You can get away with a lot of stuff while driving around here. But when you park...that's when all the cops come out to ticket you.

[Accer]

[quote="The Cid";p="702898"]
Let's include the whole state of California.[/quote]

...If you can't handle most of the state of California, you probably shouldn't be driving in any city, in the whole world.

[Martin Blank]

I can handle it, but I choose not to handle certain sections. I only go to Los Angeles itself when I absolutely have to, partially because most of the streets in downtown, while allowing left turns, have no dedicated left turn lanes at all. The sidewalks are quite narrow, and so there's little room to expand them. There is talk of experimenting with them in a few places anyway, so there is some hope.

Another problem is light synchronization. I haven't made the mistake of getting caught on Sunset in many years, but I understand now that on the heaviest eight-mile section, it can take two hours to complete it, and it's not any faster trying to use side streets.

Even Orange County is getting ridiculously bad. I haven't taken the freeway to work during normal travel times in a year because it takes ten minutes longer to make the eight miles rather than taking the streets.

[Accer]

[quote="Martin Blank";p="703720"]I only go to Los Angeles itself when I absolutely have to...[/quote]

Amen. It is indeed a hellhole.

[Deacon]

[quote="Martin Blank";p="703720"]Even Orange County is getting ridiculously bad.[/quote]
Don't you mean...The OC?

[Jezebel]

/me foams at the mouth

[Nomi]

If you have one or if you dont, traffic sucks. My husband and I gave up our car about 6 months ago and moved onto campus. The hubby got a job at the campus bookstore, and our daughters daycare is about 2.5 miles away, which we either bike to with the wagon attached, or spend almost 2 hours on the bus to get her there and get back for classes. Traffic and dependency on vehicles is horrid even in our circumstance. I feel for you.

Nomi

[Bigity]

Maybe it's because I live in Texas..but giving up your vehicle would be like..cutting my damn legs off.

Not helpful, in other words. But I understand that in certain places, people like to live in groups of 1000 per 100 square foot.

[Nomi]

The only reason my hubby and I are able to do without a car is that the college we go to is about a quarter mile from downtown, the grocery store, library, movie theater, and all right on the bus line. The only heavy traffic that is unbearable is on the highway, which we are nowhere near, so its a prime spot NOT to have a car. We are very lucky, most people don't have the ability to that. I wish more people did. Not having to worry if the car is going to break down, start, stop making that chugging noise and other such concerns is a relief. Not to mention not worrying about Insurance, tickets, car crashes and the such. Plus I've lost weight walking around everywhere. Major downside is riding a bike in the winter up here in the mountains.