I used to live in Los Angeles which has the worst traffic in the world. I have lived in Mumbai India, Sao Paulo Brazil and Vancouver Canada and nothing beats Los Angeles. I used to live near I-10 which used to be standstill on a Sunday morning at 5 am and I used to wonder where all these people were going.
The Los Angeles region had the worst traffic congestion in the nation for the 20th year in a row, according to an annual report released Monday. According to the study, rush-hour drivers in metropolitan Los Angeles — which includes Los Angeles and Orange counties — spent an average of 93 hours more in traffic during 2003 than they would have without traffic jams. For a person who works five days a week and never takes a vacation, that’s like being parked on the freeway for 21 minutes every day.
In fact, the average commute in 2003 took nearly twice as long as it should have, costing the average rush-hour driver $1,598 in extra gas and diminished free time throughout the year, according to the report. Those figures were worse for the Los Angeles area than for any other major urban area covered by the report.Los Angeles Ranks Worst in U.S. Traffic Study
Then I moved to San Francisco Bay Area and things improved. Now instead of living in the most congested area, I live in the second most congested area
The Bay Area is ranked near the top in one category most area residents would rather not be recognized for.According to an annual report on commuting times, drivers in the Bay Area suffer through the second-worst traffic jams in the country. This year’s Urban Mobility Report says on average, Bay Area drivers are delayed about 72 hours a year. The annual report says only Los Angeles-area drivers spend more time sitting in traffic jams. They waste an 93 extra hours a year in trafficStudy says Bay Area traffic delays second longest in nation
Now if I am fed up with all this and decide to move back to my home town of Thrissurr, Kerala, things don’t look good their either
Traffic snarls, blaring horns and bad-tempered drivers may soon become the order of the day in Thrissur town if constructive steps are not taken to address the increasing traffic problems.
A major hurdle in traffic management in Thrissur is the absence of corresponding development of roads to the number of vehicles that roll out every year. But it’s not the only one. Lack of proper planning in the construction of junctions and traffic routeing, narrow roads, inadequate parking facilities, the list is almost endless.
With a total area of 101.42 sq km, Thrissur town has a road network of 526 km. Major roads lead to the Swaraj Round, and herein lies the core of the problem. Traffic on the Round has been restricted to one-way from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., but even this could prove inadequate in future, according to the police. Parking is another contentious issue on the Round, which needs to be addressedThrissur faces traffic problems
This is what globalization truly is: Anywhere you go in the world, you get the same set of problems.
Ahh, good old Thrissur.. I remember one very interesting thing about traffic in Kerala.. on any one way street (even though nothing is mentioned about the timings), people assume that it’s two-way after 9 pm. What I remember about traffic is not the congestion (of which I experienced little), but the imminent danger of being run over by a wild KSRTC bus. Boy those buses… *shudder*
Anil,
Actually it is auto rickshaws with their fighter jet mobility that gives me the shivers.
There’s always Chennai. Though a bit of a drag, the traffic does move, and if one were to believe one’s friends and relatives (one tends to, doesn’t one?) Chennai traffic is far saner than Bangalore.
Ravages, We went to a house in Pallavaram in a car through a road which was built for bi-directional bi-cycle traffic. This road had cars traveling in both directions. And yes, it was not standstill.
I missed a train in LA because of the traffic!!!! No matter how bad things are in India, I’ve never missed a train. The buffer I keep always gets me to the train in time. There, we left Burbank for Union Station with a 2 hour buffer and still missed the train!!!