Traffic -- ARGH!

[1moreroad]

WTF is up with traffic these days?

In the last 3 weeks I've seen 4 tractor trailers slide by me with brakes locked.  Lots of them have started using engine braking (Jake Brakes?) on the 405 which I used to never hear.

Wednesday morning (V-day) CHP had to run a traffic break so a rider could push his motorcycle off the road.  Car and m/c on the side of the road so I assume it was a crash.  Rider was standing, at least.

Wednesday evening the connector from one freeway to another was backed up onto the first freeway.  Traffic was slowing as I'm approaching the carpool lane entrance.  I start slowing gradually until I heard screeching brakes locked up somewhere behind me after which I swung onto the inside shoulder.

Yesterday it took me 85 minutes to drive 22 miles home in the car figuring my schedule was off rush hour a bit because of pre-school pick-up/drop-off duties.  Turns out it would have been faster to walk my kid to school, walk home, suit up, and ride the bike to work, never mind the drive home.  Sigalert caused by a car/bike crash.  Lots of plastic between the #1 and #2 lanes.  No rider at the scene.  R1 or R6.  Back end of the bike looked fine but there was no front plastic.  He probably ran out of room and t-boned a lane changer.

This morning the carpool lane is doing about 70 and the regular lanes about 60.  Suddenly the regular lanes were doing about 40 and a Dodge Intrepid was sliding into the carpool lane.  Fortunately it was one of the few places with an inside shoulder so the Toyota in front of me and I both swung into the shoulder to pass the Intrepid who stopped short of the car in front of him but half in the carpool lane.

[brianhe]

Sounds like Seattle area traffic.  Here's my analysis:  West Coast overpopulation leading to stressed infrastructure, stressed drivers, more accidents, more congestion and more stressed drivers in a vicious circle.  I expect at some point that people will stop moving out here due to these and other symptoms of the overcrowding.  It doesn't help (traffic anyways) that the legal-political process (environmental laws, zoning, etc.) basically has shut down new road construction.  In Seattle, we're still debating how or whether to replace the 520 bridge and Alaskan Way viaduct, two major pieces of road infrastructure that are known to be way past their design life and not ready for the inevitable next medium-sized earthquake.

[greench440]

You forgot to thow in the stupid fucks on their cell phones and crackberries not paying attention.

[Nny]

I remember getting lost on the LA freeways in high school when I went to visit a friend of mine down there.  LA is the only place I can think of where you can get lost on the freeway.    It doesn't help that half the time you don't get enough warning when an interchange is coming up and you need to get across 6 lanes of traffic.  That being said, I think LA drivers are some of the most talented drivers as a whole that I've ever seen (second would be in Baltimore).  Due to the sheer volume of cars moving around LA I avoid it during peak times (read 8am - 11pm) even when planning trips to AZ (from Nor Cal).

Up here the biggest complaint I have at rush times is how people insist on still going slow even when the road has opened up in front of them.  What possesses people to do 15 on the freeway with a 12 second lead time to the car in front of them is beyond me.  

[mcoyote]

At first glance, riding a motorcycle for bread-n-butter transportation in an urban area seems like living in fear (and, possibly, dying in it).

Truthfully, it serves to remind us everyday that we prosper through work and heatbreak, not divine guidance, in the face of an uncertain future.

The ones who survive inspire the hopeful.

[denydog]

Don't get me started on crazy drivers!  OK, a few months ago I'm in my Avalanche, driving on Northbound I-5, late afternoon, averaging about 30 mph in slow-n-go traffic.  See this guy, apparently sane, maybe a business man, next to me reading some kind of paper while he's driving.  He's not just glancing at it while he's driving, he's reading it, and driving between paragraphs!  He glances up every 5-8 seconds, but is spending way more time reading than driving.  I honk at him, and give a disapproving look.  He just grins at me with a look like I'm the crazy one , and continues reading. He then stares at me a couple of more times, like what am I going to do about it.  He actually looked a little pleased at himself.  I got the impression he thought my discomfort at having to share the road with this accident-in-waiting, was amusing.

Thanks for listening  

[SlakeMoth]

That's why you should trade in the Avalanche for an old Dodge Power Wagon finished in mis-matched fenders and Rustoleum, sportin' a 4x8 for a front bumper.  Then the next time you see that, you could just drift into his lane, making him drop his phone, lose his reading place, and spill his latte.

[twist]

That being said, I think LA drivers are some of the most talented drivers as a whole that I've ever seen (second would be in Baltimore).

Baltimore?  Bawlmer?!  Bawlmer drivers can't drive!  They are some of the worst I've seen, I lived there for about 6 years!

[jsanford]

This week on I-90 was hell. Props to the guy in the blue VStrom who lane-split in the 20mph HOV lane.  The day before, I saw him helping someone out by the side of the road.

[Nny]

Baltimore?  Bawlmer?!  Bawlmer drivers can't drive!  They are some of the worst I've seen, I lived there for about 6 years!

When was that?  Given, I've only driven through a handful of times.. each time there was a lot of traffic but it was all moving along well.

[Mac]

Southern drivers are the worst. They all think they're in nascar and drive 20+ the speed limit or are blue haired and drive -20 the speedlimit. That and in many of the smaller town areas half of their equipment doesn't work. One or no brakelites, hi beams always on cause they have no low beams.

[Jeff N]

My worst driving faves are Salt Lake City and Denver. The SF Bay Area can get pretty bad, but nowhere near SLC or Denver.

[twist]

When was that?  Given, I've only driven through a handful of times.. each time there was a lot of traffic but it was all moving along well.

1993 - 1999

[1moreroad]

Props to the guy in the blue VStrom who lane-split in the 20mph HOV lane.  The day before, I saw him helping someone out by the side of the road.

Yeah, I've only had to do that once.  Another rider hit the rear right side of a mini-van.  Don't know who was at fault.  I didn't witness it.  "Fortunately" the rider hit a vanpool of nurses!  He was being treated properly.  They had overlooked the bike lying on its side spilling gasoline, though.  I righted it and got it over to the shoulder.  Couldn't do anything else so I left the scene.

[Gaolee]

Traffic like we have been having lately makes me miss my old pickup.  It was a 1965 GMC with no good parts.  Literally.  It had dents everywhere.  Every piece of glass was chipped, cracked, or something.  Even the taillight lenses were a little crazed.  The inner fender wells didn't have dents in them until I noticed and loaded a bunch of busted out concrete chunks shot-put style, aimed at them.  It was the rolling vision of cheap fenders.  All you had to do was look a little crazed in that truck and drift toward people.  It freaked them out completely.  Cell phones hadn't become so common when I had it, so it's evil aura never got put to good use.  I wonder where it is now.  It was the undead, the Dick Cheney of vehicles, so I am sure it is terrorizing traffic and causing holes in the ozone layer somewhere still.

[denydog]

Several years ago, when I was young and crazy, a guy in an older Porche was play games on I-5.  I was following him in the left lane, and when I moved to the right to get around him, he sped up.  So back in the left lane where he slowed way down again.  We did this about 3 or 4 times at least.  He was really playing it.  I was driving my wife's underpowered little Mazda, with her asleep in the passenger seat, so it was completely impossible to get around him.  I would given anything to have been driving my beater 65' Ford wagon that I owned at the time.  I definitely would have given him a PUSH!!!!!  My blood pressure still rises a little just thinking of that bozo.  What a no life sob.  ARGH says it all.