So when driving in Los Angeles … there’s this thing called Traffic.

No seriously, this really is a thing.  Not just on the movie TV shows.

You see, you are going along in your car, and then … Everyone Slows Down!  For Truth!  Like they all plan it that way.  And like all at the same time.

Traffic in the LA area is something special, I will give it that, and after a long morning in it I felt it raised itself to be BLOGWORTHY.

I spent the weekend hanging out in the Temecula wine country with good friends.  I had work to do today in Rancho Dominguez.  That meant I had a 75 mile drive to the plant on mostly interstates – which if you were in any other part of the world would mean about 1-1/2 to reach the plant.

Yeah …Try closer to three hours.

Traffic happens because of generally three situtations:

1. There was an accident.  Just like that accident before the CA-55 interchange on CA-91
2. There is construction.  Just like at the I-15, CA-91 interchange.
3. There are more cars then the designed capacity of the road.  Which is everywhere else on the freeway this morning.

To be honest, LA Traffic isn’t all that bad in the grand scheme of traffic.  Boston sucks because where there is traffic, it doesn’t move.  I can get stuck 6 miles from home, and it will take me 30 minutes to get there.  At least the LA Traffic always moves.  Chicago traffic sucks, because the drivers are more aggressive – willing to cut you off or run down a parking lane just to get that small edge over you in the run to the next toll booth; and if you want to change lanes, don’t put your blinker on because 10 cars will want to pass you before letting you in.  In LA, it seems like everyone is content with where they are and that it is going to take a while to get there – so there is a shared acceptance and congeniality to it all.

What makes LA’s traffic so rough is that LA is so big!  Like I said, it was 75 miles this morning.  While my route is a bit extraordinary for me – it’s not out of the question for the common LA commuter.   Where people work and where they live in this metro area is a pretty grand divide.  It’s not out of the question that a 2 hour commute is what people WANT, not just need.  Decent middle class housing in Corona or Riverside is a good 40 to 50 miles away from business centers in Western LA County.  People choose to spend half their day in their car.

Tonight, I head to a hotel that is only a half hour away from the plant I am working from.  So I guess I shouldn’t complain.

But when have you known me not to complain?