LA Traffic

It would seem that town planners in LA are actively invested in pedestrians not existing. I’m not saying they actually want us all to die, just that we have absolutely no place outside of our homes or cars. Even within carparks at malls and plazas etc there are very few pedestrian paths (if any). Sidewalks / pavements / footpaths (you know, those protected spaces beside a road that are designed for people to walk along) sometimes exist, but more often don’t. Fortunately, drivers in LA don’t seem to share the same sadistic tendencies as town planners. They are very pleasant and are very keen to give way and look out for pedestrians. Some are altogether less forgiving of other drivers (perhaps they know that town planners are likely to be driving).

The freeways / highways / motorways / etc are also quite insane here. They are big. I mean really big. They take up quite a lot of space. They’re big. It really is worth repeating. And the lane that you’re in absolutely determines where you are going. Sometimes there are crazy junctions where the 2 lanes on the left are going straight ahead, the two middle lanes are going sort of straight and sort of right ish but will end up several suburbs away and the two right lanes are actually going right (but to two different side roads). So being in the correct lane matters. Which is tricky if one or two of these lanes are at an almost standstill and the others are quite clear. The speed differentials between the lanes can be quite significant which makes changing lanes a matter of communal trust – we all have to be in this together or it’s all going nowhere in a vicious pile of smoking, twisted metal. It’s quite mad.

In many road systems there are occasionally bridges or other raised ways of getting one lane over some other lanes and into the right place. There’s a particular example of that here. It’s crazy because it is soooooo high up, and the slope towards the outside of the turn is really obvious too (this I don’t mind so much, centripetal force is a thing, and at that elevation, I’d prefer the vehicle to be pushing into a sloped roadway than for it to elegantly slide sideways off a flat one and tumble inelegantly to a firey death).

In addition to all of this, the average vehicle here is about 1.5 times as big as the average vehicle in the UK (I think the roads here are about twice the size so that even though the vehicles are bigger, it actually all feels much less squashed and crowded than in the UK). Some vehicles here are quite insane – cyber trucks are quite the controversial thing (from an aesthetic point of view as well as a socio-political point of view – I’m personally not a fan, in any sense). There are some SUVs here that are ridiculously large. Quite scarily so, when I walk quite close beside one because I’m trying to walk through a car park and there’s no pavement / sidewalk / pedestrian-friendly path so I have to just share the space with the cars / trucks / SUVs / scary motorised things.

Another interesting thing that happens in downtown LA is the Waymo. This is a driverless taxi. Think Uber, but driverless. I got one for a short ride with a friend here. And it was fab! Many of you who know me know my attitude to cars / traffic / driving / etc, so you probably won’t be too surprised to hear that I felt far more comfortable at the mercy of a computerised system that has had a lot of people develop it, check it, look at it, test it, etc, etc than at the mercy of a human who is somewhere between exceedingly competent and barely paying attention.

During our stretch circles each morning we often have a question of the day (what’s your favourite fruit; if you could attend any concert from the past 100 years what would it be; would you rather sleep in the woods with bears or swim with sharks; etc; etc). One morning the question was what’s your favourite car. For me: the last car that exists when humans finally realise that cars are not a particularly safe, sustainable, sensible way of facilitating travel from A to B.

But, in the meantime I spend my time defying the town planners by choosing to walk. I get buses. I get lifts to and from site in the All Hands and Hearts vehicles (which, by the way, are named after cheeses). I get lifts from staff and volunteers in their private vehicles (no cyber trucks so far). And the occasional Waymo.

Mostly walking though!