Q: There are more dive bomber drivers on The 405 than on Interstate 680 or 880. In my youth, people in L.A. drove fast, but obeyed signs and signaled lane changes. Bay Area drivers drove slowly, but treated stop signs as suggestions. Now, drivers in both places drive faster, view speed limits as minimums, and treat yellow lights as a challenge.
I learned to drive in the San Fernando Valley and was licensed in 1959. I moved to Berkeley in 1961, Martinez in 1965, San Francisco in 1969, and Walnut Creek in 2004. Drivers in the Walnut Creek area are more polite than anywhere else I’ve driven. I was kind of lead-footed for many years, but signaled moves ahead of time. I no longer treat speed limits as minimums.
Jerry Fishkin
A: Yours was one of the few responses that defended Bay Area drivers. Today’s column shares more on the question of whether L.A. or Bay Area drivers are better.
Q: L.A. traffic scares me. This is from a person who has driven buses in San Francisco and New York City, and has 60 years driving experience without a collision or moving violation.
To accommodate all the SoCal vehicles, original freeway lanes there have been squeezed and shoulders eliminated to generate more lanes.
Many people drive really fast in L.A., with 75 mph not uncommon and kamikazes go much faster. I will take the Nimitz at rush hour over the Harbor Freeway or I-5 in downtown L.A. any day.
Bruce Fiedler
A: And…
Q: Smooth, competent commuting is a hallmark of the L.A. freeway driver. Research reports describe the unspoken social contract among drivers there, where following distances are decreased, but in exchange, all eschew sudden movements.
I think this trickles down to surface streets. In contrast, Berkeley drivers (who really belong on bicycles) rarely operate in crowded conditions, and maintain self-absorption derived from the overall vibe of the city itself.
When I moved to Berkeley, I was advised to “avoid eye contact,” whether with a pedestrian or driver. This promulgates the illusion of the bubble at the expense of courtesy, and any engagement is construed as “aggression” instead of coexistence.
Daniel Burke
A: And…
Q: There are two distinct types of bad drivers: aggressive and clueless. Clueless drivers don’t know how much they enrage aggressive drivers, while the vast majority of decent drivers know how not to be overly agitated by bad drivers. It seems like the road culture of L.A. provides advanced driver training. There the weak perish, here the weak clog the fast lane.
Anonymous
A: Maybe we can learn something from what L.A. drivers do better than we do, without taking on their frightening driving practices.
Look for Gary Richards at Facebook.com/mr.roadshow or contact him at mrroadshow@bayareanewsgroup.com.
Source: www.mercurynews.com