Bay Area transplant finds that Socal drivers are better breed

QI’m a transplant who left the Bay Area after living there for decades.

Thank you for helping me all those years to understand and cope with the South

Bay traffic (“Road Boulders” was especially helpful). I’ve been living now for three years in Southern California.

Drivers are better here, which will be sure to stir up my friends by the Bay Area.

— Ron Mackenzie, a happy Bay Area transplant

AI’m sure it will. Tell us more.

QI drive on the freeways here every workday.

Sure, there are bad drivers in Socal, just as there are everywhere.

But in general, drivers here are much more cooperative and don’t tailgate as much.

The traffic flows better.

They let each other in, they don’t get mad at each other as much and there are few “road boulders.”

They do what you have often said — you gotta “go with the flow.”

— Ron Mackenzie

AWhy do you think that is?

QOne possible reason is that the freeway system is much better here, with more lanes and a much better design at interchanges.

That obviously has its environmental downsides.

But the upside is that my mental health is better.

I often muse about the Bay Area freeways, where it seems that “If it was good enough in 1965, it is good enough today.”

Given that two of the most valuable companies in the world are now in the South Bay, it might be time to rethink any aversion to freeway construction (heresy, I know).

— Ron Mackenzie

AMany years ago, a Caltrans director went on a helicopter ride over Los Angeles and remarked that drivers below were the “most disciplined in the nation.”

I believe he was right. Rapid lane changing, tailgating and other Death Vader stunts are futile, so the Southern California drivers’ motto seems to be to go with the flow.

There’s not much else you can do with the amount of traffic they contend with and have for years.

During the pandemic, Caltrans says that Los Angeles traffic didn’t ease significantly, and there was not a major drop in congestion, but in the Bay Area, speeds of 90 mph were all too common, and crashes increased, often because of increased speed on the open freeways.

Soon dozens of interchanges will be upgraded, starting with south Highway 101 to south 87 and the Gilman Street monstrosity near Interstate 80 in Berkeley. Numerous interchanges along 101 from Gilroy to San Francisco are also on the upgrade wish list, and so are Highway 17 at Highway 9 in Los Gatos, and Interstate 580 and Interstate 680 in the East Bay.