Another Los Angeles route around question
What's the best route through LA when going from Santa Barbra to San Diego? I'm assuming weekends might be easier? (If there is such a thing in LA.):)
Forum Discussion
Make sure that your navigator has both Google Maps and Sigalert available -- they often give conflicting real time traffic info. We have found Sigalert to be slightly more accurate -- it'll list 40 mph traffic as "slow" (yellow or orange), while Google Maps shows the same area as red (stop and go).
Make sure the navigator has a good sense of where the interchanges are and what to look for. The driver will be laser-focused on lane position and will not be able to juggle overall navigation with moment-to-moment situational awareness.
Drive very defensively -- assume that everyone around you is a fool, who is texting, who is buzzed, and who first learned to drive as an adult after coming to LA fairly recently. That is demographically quite accurate. Only the paranoid survive.
Get set up for your lane changes well in advance. Almost no one will simply let you in, despite your turn signal. Back in the middle of the USA, we have found that things are very different -- people ease off the gas when they see the blinking light. Not here. That blinker means "speed up and close the gap."
This all sounds like an exaggeration. It is not. I have been driving here every day for 48 years, safely. Knock on wood.
Make sure the navigator has a good sense of where the interchanges are and what to look for. The driver will be laser-focused on lane position and will not be able to juggle overall navigation with moment-to-moment situational awareness.
Drive very defensively -- assume that everyone around you is a fool, who is texting, who is buzzed, and who first learned to drive as an adult after coming to LA fairly recently. That is demographically quite accurate. Only the paranoid survive.
Get set up for your lane changes well in advance. Almost no one will simply let you in, despite your turn signal. Back in the middle of the USA, we have found that things are very different -- people ease off the gas when they see the blinking light. Not here. That blinker means "speed up and close the gap."
This all sounds like an exaggeration. It is not. I have been driving here every day for 48 years, safely. Knock on wood.
