Community Chat

[cherry]

We have horrendous drivers here. We get lots of international students, some have never ridden a bicycle. They seem not to be able to negotiate traffic, or to follow the rules of the road. Many of them are first time drivers. Don't get me started on the texters, and those using smart phones

[SharkE]

Don't drink or text while driving.  You don't have the right to kill innocent people.

Most can't afford insurance why the rates keep getting higher.

Just like with any insurance people who do have insurance pay for the people who don't.

[Moonchilde]

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@Marienkaefer2 wrote:

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@Moonchilde wrote:

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@LonestarBabs wrote:

Well, we were all driving just fine here in Texas until the population explosion and people from all over the country -- and world -- moved here. That definitely changed the skill set...

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Exactly what happened in CA.

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That's a good point.

The more people,  the more crowded the roads are,  the more people lose their patience,  the more apt they are to do unsafe and crazy things. ..

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And many SoCal immigrants come from countries where there *are* no rules of the road or very few, and no one is ever cited for not obeying the few laws that exist. Think "tourists taking their lives in their hands" to venture into traffic in those countries. They are the majority of CA immigrants vs. European, where the laws are much stricter than in the US.

Those drivers come here and even if they pass a DL test, still largely have the same attitude towards obeying the rules/law. If they've grown up with that, not much chance of changing. 

It has hopefully changed a bit more recently, but 15 years ago I had one friend who drove extra miles to shop in another city because she lived in an area where it was unsafe to drive down the street or park in a parking lot and walk to the front door. And from what was often on our news, she wasn't being all that paranoid.

[RedTop]

My trucker daughter would say CA in a heartbeat.   She has had her rig hit twice by cars who didn't even slow down.   Both times the driver cam in the truck got clear pictures of the vehicles in order for the company to file insurance claims to get the rig fixed.   

[DiAnne]

@Moonchilde

I can't speak to LA county but the last time I was in Orange County it was scary driving and I learned to drive on LA freeways!  The traffic was horrendous.  When I lived there it used to take us 35 to 45 minutes to get from Orange County to the Greek Theater or Hollywood Bowl - now my friends who still live there says it takes hours to get anywhere.  I have to say I felt safe where ever I went but that is probably because I used to live there. 

[Moonchilde]

@DiAnne, my adulthood was split pretty evenly between LA and OC. I definitely felt OC was better - more room on the (off-fwy) roads at least but I last lived there 18-19 years ago. I used to drive from Irvine to San Diego in 2 hrs max; now from what I hear it's usually 3 hrs, often 4.

I most recently lived in West LA, less than 5 miles from work. It took me anywhere from 40-65 minutes to drive that distance, leaving work at 3:30 pm. On a day like today it would have been 75 minutes easily.

Taking the Hollywood Bowl bus to a concert became a nightmare of 90 minutes plus from Culver City - they went surface streets! It wasn't even fun - you took the earliest bus and wondered if you'd have time to grab food before the performance started 😬

[DiAnne]

@Moonchilde

I have a good friend who lives in San Diego.  We used to have season tickets to the Old Globe Theater in Balboa Park.  Where I used to get on the freeway there was a sign that said 82 miles to San Diego and I could do that in under 1-1/2 hours (out of traffic).  I guess we are both lucky we moved!  I have to admit the traffic in the Seattle area is not great either.  They only have two freeways.  Very hard for people from SoCal to grasp!

When I was down there I was 11 miles from work and it took me 20 minutes.  

[Moonchilde]

@DiAnne, the worst thing for me locally is 1 and 2-lane roads and many less multi-lane freeways, so if there is an accident or any sort of backup there's no alternate route.

But even here there's rush hour traffic. We are an hour from San Jose but it's a 2-hr trip after a work day. I have someone stuck in it right now.

At least I'm not working any more and can pick my travel times most of the time.

[Shorty2U]

And I thought they were bad here in PA! lol. 

Just today, on the way to the eye Dr, some car was speeding and crossed the middle of a 4 lane street (2 lanes on each side -no barrier), and came at us head on. I screamed and covered my face, I thought we were done!  He or she swerved back to their side just in time, as DH swerved off the road. I'm guessing the person was probably on a cellphone but I didn't see if they were. I was too busy watching my life pass me by!

[qualitygal]

Was thinking about a few things yesterday and I wonder if road rage doesn't begin with some fear of something going on, with that driver. Some people who are fearful, show it in anger. That's just what I thinking about because of someone's reaction to an incident and I believe that originated from fear. I could be way wrong on trying to read the face of someone else.  We've lived in many different places (states) and each has it's share of bad drivers. We all could do better I''m sure.