A German in America

[HeavenShallBurn]

Oh it's definitely an LA thing, I think I made that clear.

Wasn't arguing just pointing out that you don't really see that reaction elsewhere.

I did experience the other type of rain, the tropical storm kind, and it DID slow the traffic down, pretty much no traffic was to be found. Driving up from Florida in late January (back in '04) a friend and I hit the backside of a tropical storm just as we got to Jacksonville.
I had never seen anything like it (and haven't since)!

Little hyperbole on my part, things do slow down, but not like LA. Though in Tropical Storms a lot of people stay off the roads, not sure why. I've never had any trouble with that weather, but I learned from the start. Also you passed right by the area where I was raised by the bases near Jacksonville.

2-3 inches of water standing in the road everywhere just from the downpour and visibility down to 20 yards tops. It was crazy and we turned around and drove out of the storm again to try circumventing it.

See I'll drive through that sort of weather at about 50mph given no traffic snarls to slow me down. Then again I'm crazy, that's the only explanation for a drinking game involving half a bottle of vodka, 3 porkchops, a broken 2x4, and an alligator.

Managed to cross over the state up there and then up through the western part of Georgia...

Sorry to hear about it, foreigners shouldn't be subjected to Georgia, in fact I'm not sure anyone but Georgians should be subjected to Georgia. The smell did wash out of your clothes though didn't it?

not exactly the kind of weather you experience on most trips through Europe.

Really I'm sorry you had to pass through Georgia, not that it helps. And it might be good to put up some warning signs or something. But at least they don't live on your border

 

[Chimera]

If you want to see life come screaming to a halt, you should see snow in South Carolina.

Back in Jan or Feb 1988, I was in Columbia when it snowed. Me from Minnesota, with my little Mazda pickup with the Minnesota plates. The minute it started coming down, they sent all of us home from work. It was coming down in big, slow flakes, but melting and vanishing right above ground. Everyone on I-95 was on the right shoulder, driving 10mph. I'm in the left lane, doing freeway speeds. Muahaha!

Later that evening, my neighbor came to me in a panic, asking me to drive him across town to where his wife was in the hospital. He knew I could handle the 6" of snow that was on the ground by then. Along the way, I only saw ONE other vehicle on the road - a cop. I think he was utterly amazed to see me. My neighbor was wide-eyed with shock in the passenger seat, surprised that the snow didn't phase me or hinder us in the least.

The entire city was shut down for a week.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Having lived both in the North and the South...

Yes- in the South, a few inches of snow is cause for alarm, if not outright panic. The cities- not to mention the people themselves- aren't equipped to handle the weather.

OTOH, in the North, you get heat stroke advisories at 85degF (29degC). I was taking a nap in my car at that temp today- and no, I wasn't in the shade.

 

[billd91]

That's an LA thing, I've never seen rain even near monsoonal rain you get during a tropical storm slow down traffic in any other city I've been in. But LA? It's like a drop hitting the pavement causes mass hysteria. Sometimes I wish they'd just accidentally nuke that part of California so nobody would have to deal with it again.

Having driven some in LA while on vacation, I have at least one theory about this... Unlike rational areas of the US, where the highway lanes tend to line up with the slabs of pavement that make up the highway, plenty of the freeways in LA seem to be built with the slabs of pavement running across the lanes at a diagonal. Why is this significant?
When it's raining, particularly at night, the lane lines tend to be hard to see but you might still see the seam between the lanes. When they don't match the lane marker, you tend to lose where you are in the road. I found this very disconcerting when driving in the rain after dark in LA.

 

[billd91]

It's not insane. It's a natural side effect of a cities (or at least suburbs) that grew up after cars became common, rather than before. And cars became common 20 years earlier in the US than in Europe.

It's not merely natural. Auto companies definitely had their hand in promoting the use of cars and emphasis on cars in city planning as well as investing in rail and companies that produced the rolling stock to completely undermine and dismantle them. Rail-based public transportation actually shrunk as a result. Now, we're looking at ways to reintroduce more rail to reduce pollution and traffic congestion.

 

[billd91]

You are right that a lot of cities are wasteful in neighborhood planning, or at least have been. THere is a growing movement to go back to the old school of neighborhood development with higher densities of residences and businesses to help reduce the need for excess paving of roads and reduce the amount of driving people need to do.
There are now political struggles going on between developers of sprawling neighborhoods with more space per home, which a lot of people like because it gets them more out into the "country" (as long as too many people don't follow them), and the higher density urban planners on appropriate land use and growth strategy.
For a very long time, space was a resource the US simply HAD. Sprawl wasn't a serious problem because there was still plenty of space to grow into. In some places, that's still the case, but with rising energy costs it's no longer always the most important factor.

 

[drothgery]

It's not merely natural. Auto companies definitely had their hand in promoting the use of cars and emphasis on cars in city planning as well as investing in rail and companies that produced the rolling stock to completely undermine and dismantle them.

FWIW, this is almost entirely an urban legend.

 

[drothgery]

For a very long time, space was a resource the US simply HAD. Sprawl wasn't a serious problem because there was still plenty of space to grow into. In some places, that's still the case, but with rising energy costs it's no longer always the most important factor.

Sprawl is not a real problem, and is the natural consequence of a wealthier populace with access to better transportation. It was caused by better carriages and rail before cars and freeways, and happens everywhere geography or government regulations do not prevent it. Most families with children prefer less-dense housing. They will get it if they can afford to do so and keep their jobs.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Sprawl is not a real problem, and is the natural consequence of a wealthier populace with access to better transportation. It was caused by better carriages and rail before cars and freeways, and happens everywhere geography or government regulations do not prevent it.

Well, Europe was lucky because it already had a very high population density before the car was invented. Thus, sprawl is not nearly as pervasive there as in the USA, and most settlements are a lot more compact which keeps travel distances down.

As a result, Europe is able to withstand gas price increases much better than the USA - because there is little sprawl, there are actually real alternatives to cars possible.

 

[billd91]

FWIW, this is almost entirely an urban legend.

Depending on whom you believe, that is. I may have to get ahold of Edwin Black's latest on it (published in 2006). Sounds interesting.