Commuting in LA

Traffic? Sure.

I have been driving to work in the mornings, early, and home in the afternoons, early enough before it gets too messy.

Where we live, in Long Beach, and where I work, in Costa Mesa, is connected by I-405. A stretch of 405 happens to be the busiest stretch of US interstate in the country, but that's not this stretch. This is probably in the top ten, though.

It's dark when I go to work in the morning, and on the occasions of going to work in the afternoon, the sun's out, but the traffic is the same. I usually drive in the third lane, at, um, let's just say rather high speeds.

One thing any driver arriving here notices is that these people know how to drive. In New York, you figure out how to walk with a purpose, and New Yorkers walk like that every moment of every jaunt. In LA, it's almost the same, but in a car.

There are seven lanes, pretty much full, and everyone is jamming; the slowest driver is at, like, 73 miles an hour. Awesome.

In Austin, the driving on the freeway is different. Timid isn't the right word, rather, it's more Texan. Texas is filled with individuals, and they drive like they're the only people on the road, doing whatever they feel like. Sometimes you'll get people jamming at 90 in the slow lane, and others cruising at 58 in the fast lane, causing more trouble than the kid in the slow lane.

Driving home is different. It's slow for a quarter of the way, then it picks up, and is like the drive in the morning. Unfortunately my exit home, State Route 22 to 7th St in Long Beach, has just closed for the next year. Boo. I had just discovered it, and it had shaved a serious chunk of time off the drive through Long Beach.