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They both have very severe traffic bottlenecks all the time at various locations. I know this from personal experience having lived in LA and NY. Love 'em both!
I have never been to LA, but I've been told that at times the highway becomes a parking lot for over an hour. Is it standstill traffic or just crawling?
In NYC traffic comes to a stop or near stop usually because of an accident.
Even at bottlenecks (merging off of the Gowanus going toward the Manhattan/Brooklyn bridges or Queens) it only lasts a couple of minutes until everyone gets into a lane then it is back to speeding again. Plus if you are in that much of a hurry you can pay $5.50 and take the tunnel instead. At least there is an option. I don't know how many tunnels there are in LA if any.
Really depends upon where one lives and works in any major region
Generally, NYC region has far worse traffic than LA; NYC has relatively primitive/slow fwys, B&T chokepoints, Manhattan cross-town and Winter weather slowdowns
Many of most affluent in LA live and work on Westside; have rather short (<20min) drives to office/dining (CenturyCity and BevHills are LA's version of MidtownManhattan) and rarely have a need/desire to get on a fwy (despite being in the place that invented fwy culture)
In contrast, the drive from Greenwich to Midtown is ~45-60 mins (unless weather slowdown)....and Manhattan doesn't have the spacious, plentiful office parking garages of LA or valet parking in front of restaurants
LA itself has worst traffic.
NYC does more public transportation than anything from subways, taxis, buses, light rails, heavy rails, etc.
I agree L.A. traffic is worse than NYC and in NYC you have alternative of using public transportation much more so than in L.A. (So you don't have to be in that traffic!)
I have never been to LA, but I've been told that at times the highway becomes a parking lot for over an hour. Is it standstill traffic or just crawling?
When the traffic does get at its peaked time, yes, it's a stand-still. A pure stand-still. Not a single car moving for some time (edit: but I don't think it'll be like that for over an hour...). Even if it takes half an hour to get to the beach, you'd have to take a raincheck on that. I was quite amazed while being in it for a short period of time (as we waited a bit for a slow crawl but exited when none came). Over here, I'm use to a slow crawl more than a parking lot type of traffic.
Last edited by Unknown Memory; 08-03-2009 at 02:37 AM..
I agree L.A. traffic is worse than NYC and in NYC you have alternative of using public transportation much more so than in L.A. (So you don't have to be in that traffic!)
Yeah but that's not the question, it's only asking which has worse traffic. If I had to drive and could not use public transportation I would much rather drive in Los Angeles. I live in L.A. and I have never seen worse traffic than Manhattan on a busy afternoon (I learned my lesson, will never drive there again). I'd guess our car averaged at around 2 mph.
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