A friend who visited recently is considering moving to Southern California. What do you do when you have out-of-town guests? Naturally, you show them the sights.
We went to Zuma Beach, Hollywood, Santa Monica, The Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens, Old Pasadena and Mt. San Jacinto State Park. Of course, the inevitable common denominator was traffic. Lots of it. The time of day, the direction, the geographic location didn’t matter. All had too many cars and not enough space.
So it didn’t surprise me on Friday morning when I popped open my inbox and found Insurify, an online insurance site — working with TomTom’s Traffic Index and the 2012-2016 American Community Survey — had ranked Los Angeles No. 1 for traffic congestion.
The City of Angels had a congestion level of 45 percent. San Francisco was second at 39 percent, then New York at 35 percent; Seattle, 34 percent; San Jose, 32 percent. So of the worst five, three were California cities. In fact, every city except Chicago was located along the coasts: the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf.
To come up with a score, Insurify and partners start with a “free flow” base, when traffic moves freely for all cities. The congestion percentage adds extra time to any commute. In Los Angeles, we spend 45 percent more time per commute trip than in free flow. Take Nashville, No. 20 on the list at 23 percent congestion level. Southern Californians spend twice as much time on the road going the same distance as Nashvillians.
The national average is 26.1 minutes per trip. That’s 52.2 minutes per day or 4.5 hours a week. For a person working 50 weeks a year, that’s nine days lost to sitting in traffic each year. For Los Angeles, it is closer to twice that.
Nowadays, coping has replaced fixing. The answer to waiting in long lines at the airport or grocery store is to go on your phone. For traffic, it’s finding a third way. The changes are in your mindset.
What do I suggest?
- Buy a “sticker car.” These are all-electric, plug-in hybrid or electric drive cars with a gas-generator boost (a bridge car). Tell your dealer you want a sticker car. They’re allowed to travel the carpool lane with a single occupant. Also, until next year, you can ride in the FastTrak pay lanes (on the 10 and 110 freeways) for free (with a transponder from LA Metro). On Tuesday, I rode the carpool lane passing all the traffic on the 210 Freeway West. My Chevy Volt gives me that “free flow” advantage.
- Use Waze. I punched in the address of my assignment in Hacienda Heights from Pasadena on Thursday. It was near 5 p.m. Ouch! But Waze directed me to the quickest avenues so as not to jump on any congested freeway too soon. Later, when I did get on the 605, it was south of Live Oak Avenue and clear sailing. When it wasn’t, I moved into the carpool lane.
- Carpool with a friend or co-worker.
- Take a commuter bus or light-rail (Gold, Blue, Expo, Green, Red, Purple lines). The commute time will be less, but perhaps not so much. But the stress levels will go way down. And you can use your laptop or phone on the train or bus.
Insurify mentioned these traffic-avoiding tips:
- Work from home. The number of employees who have telecommuted in the last 13 years rose 115 percent.
- Take public transit. Some cities would shave average commute times if they had more public transit options. For example, only 2.5 percent of the commuters in Tampa (No. 18) use public transit. In Chicago, nearly 28 percent use transit. New York is the leader at 56.6 percent. Portland (No. 7) surprised me — only a little more than one-10th of commuters take advantage of a good public transit system. Finally, L.A. is getting better with public transit options, yet only 10.1 percent of commuters use it.
- Walk to work. San Jose had the lowest percentage: 1.7 percent. All those geniuses in Silicon Valley can’t solve their traffic woes. Or won’t. L.A. has them beat: 3.5 percent walk.
What are your suggestions?
Steve Scauzillo covers transportation, public health and environment for the Southern California News Group. He’s a recipient of the Aldo Leopold Award for Distinguished Editorial Writing from The Wilderness Society. Follow him on Twitter or Instagram @stevscaz or email him at sscauzillo@scng.com.
