Phil experiences Bay Area traffic and notes:

Traversing a few miles of I-80 here (the Bay Bridge) took 2 hours, longer than flying over the entire stretch of I-80 that traverses Utah (from Wyoming to Nevada). No accidents; just a normal flow Sunday around noon.

When people used to ask me if I liked living in the Bay Area, I always said: "I love it, except for two things... The traffic and the cost of housing (not living)." Traffic isn't nearly as bad as it used to be in 1999 and 2000. You really can tell that a of of people moved away and/or are not working. The morning commute is much easier.

There still are times and places when it's still quite bad. I experienced the Hell that is I-880 near Berkeley yesterday evening. And I don't see that really changing unless something dramatic changes--like getting much better public transit around the Bay Area. Yeah, getting to and from San Francisco isn't bad, but there are a lot of other places that public transit really doesn't serve too well.

Posted by jzawodn at August 11, 2003 11:01 AM

Reader Comments
# gabe said:

Traffic pretty much sucks everywhere I think. I hated the traffic when I was living in Mountain View. MV wasn't bad in itself, it was just dealing with 101 that was a total bitch. You throw a metric ass-load of computer geeks (and others) with tons of money who get treated like gods at their startups in a relatively small area and see what happens.

After I left California, I went to Utah, and it wasn't that bad there actually. But I moved back home to Massachusetts and I've found that it's even worse here. The congestion is not the real issue though. The real problem is the pervasive "i dont give a fuck about you, i need to get somewhere NOW" attitude. Especially the soccer moms. Good grief. There's a reason I call them Urban Assault Vehicles now. You get in the way of a psycho soccer mom and she'll drive on your ass, try to pass dangerously close to you (even in breakdown lanes), or worse, even hit you. Maybe there are just too many people on the road here. Maybe we should all get segways...

... and then take the war to the sidewalks.

on August 12, 2003 08:07 AM
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