Tiger Woods injured

L.A. — It’s gridlock much of the time, yes, but when you get out to the IE, it isn’t as bad. When traffic is moving, it’s moving fast. I’m pretty certain cops’ radar guns have 85 as the floor, because less than that you’re not getting stopped. If you need to change lanes, turn on your blinker and go because nobody is slowing down to let you in. Everybody tailgates, so get over it.

Seattle — The mass of l-5 lanes as you get close to downtown is confusing as fuck, and changing lanes so you don’t miss your exit can be a harrowing experience.

Chicago — Whether the Dan Ryan or LSD, there’s just a shit-ton of traffic. I never drove much downtown, but getting to Wrigley from the south wasn’t too bad. Getting to O’Hare or Midway can absolutely suck, though. Watch out for traffic barrels suddenly jumping into your lane, though, because they are everywhere.

D.C. — The one time I went, I was not prepared, and my navigator was kind of iffy. It’s the only place I’ve been where you can’t just take three right turns and end up where you started. After the first day there, we took cabs. We went for the Van Gogh’s Van Goghs exhibit at the National Gallery, and it was worth the trip. Afterward, we walked around the heavily populated Mall, to the Wall and Lincoln. It was Veterans Day.

Atlanta — I’ve driven through many times, downtown and the bypass. Did not care for either, but the downtown route was always neat to see all the businesses. I drove in the city twice, the last time for buckweaver and cadet’s wedding reception tour across America.

Jacksonville — Even living there, the roads could be confusing. I-95 was overrun by rednecks in jacked up trucks, with or without Salt Life in their back glass. You really need to know which side your exit is on, because not all are on the right. And downtown sucked. But the bridges are really pretty at night. And I loved Ponte Vedra, the stadium course and Palm Valley Fish Camp right on the intercoastal where the shrimp boats went in and out.

Portland — Traffic to work early was well populated but moved along. Afternoons, the 5 and 405 were parking lots until the bridge north, then thinned out in Vancouver. There’s three lanes everywhere, but the highways could have used five.

Denver — Not fun in an ice storm coming back from a Steamboat Springs spring break ski trip.

Phoenix — That city is way bigger than you think, but getting past it isn’t bad. Same with Las Vegas.

St. Louis and Kansas City have their own brands of hell, but they’re not close to the others on this list.

I’ve been to Boston and NYC but didn’t drive in either.

I love public transportation when I’m traveling or on vacation. The subway in NYC, the L in Chicago, the BART in San Francisco — love them all. You might even see a guy pick his nose, regard the contents and then wipe it on his pants.

I should add that I never use a trip navigator on my phone. If I can’t read a map, it’s time to stay home.

 

Stayed in Riverside once after covering at game at UCR. Next morning, I was meeting Ben Howland in his office at UCLA. Thought that I had given myself plenty of time by leaving 2 1/2 hours early. Yeah, no.

 

I must have had tremendous luck the times I’ve been in Jacksonville because no way does it belong in the same conversation as Atlanta, DC or Chicago. Even by the standards of mid-sized Southern cities it wasn’t all that noteworthy.

 

Driving on what's for us the wrong side of the road becomes at least somewhat "normal" more quickly than you'd think. I did for almost a week out in the country in and between smaller cities in England - wasn't crazy enough to do it in London - and what added an additional layer of difficulty was having a manual transmission and having to shift with my non-dominant left hand. After four or five hours of driving I would be pretty drained mentally.

 

that's a good list, swingline. Allow me to add ...

Chicago: The handful of times I've been back since moving away makes you realize how bad traffic has stacked up there. Certain spots (seven lanes merging into three as "the Eisenhower" forms in Hillside; the manmade backups that were/are tollbooths; Lake Shore Drive whenever an event is going on) always have been bad, but the backups start by 6 a.m. now. Had an early-morning flight out of Midway and couldn't believe it was that bad, that early on the Stevenson.

Phoenix: Besides being sprawl-tastic, the mix of wild West pickup truck drivers and blue-haired snowbirds sharing the roadways is not a good combination.

Seattle: Don't try to drive (or, especially, park) anywhere near downtown, and forget about I-5 between 3 and 8 p.m. Not a fan of charging extra for the car-pool lanes on I-405, either. Greedy bastards.

Vancouver, B.C.: All I can say is, there's good public transportation there ... USE IT! I'm not a bad driver in big cities, but the varying hours for left turns on major streets, lack of local knowledge about canals and things that caused streets to randomly end, and parking restriction adventures were a struggle for me. The reversible middle lane for the road that crossed Stanley Park worked well, though.

 

Now that's funny. Been to Riverside plenty (once stayed in the Reagan Presidential Suite at Riverside's only nice hotel, forgot name, but it was where Reagan married Nancy apparently), and you might get to the Ontario airport in 45 mins, but you're still a plane ride away from UCLA and Westwood.

 

The hotel is the Mission Inn.

There are few good and high-paying jobs in the IE, but a lot of cheaper housing. So the 91 west is a parking lot in the morning as commuters head into Orange County and LA as is the east in the evening. Same with the 15 to and from San Diego. If you're going the opposite direction, it's not too bad.

 

I'd much rather have this threadjack than the "Tiger Woods still injured" stories that some media outlets are wont to run hourly.

 

BREAKING: Tiger Woods equally as injured now as he was 24 hours ago.

 

That doesn't say much for his doctors.

 

I enjoyed the hell out of driving on the Autobahn about 35 years ago. The car’s speedometer was in kilometers, of course, and I had no idea how fast I was going. I just kept up with the other cars. Later, I discovered I was regularly going about 100-105 mph.

I like driving in cities and having grown up in the NYC suburbs, I’ve driven in Manhattan a lot. I kind of like that, too.

 

As a threadjack to a threadjack, it's interesting how highways are referred to in different parts of the country.

It's definitely a western U.S. thing to put "the" in front of highway numbers, as MTM does in his post. People from SoCal have moved to the rest of the West and brought their road-naming ways with them.

In Chicago (and maybe points further east), names are often used rather than numbers. There's been references to the Eisenhower, Dan Ryan and Stevenson expressways here.

And in the boondocks? A whole lot of "Highway 63" or "Route 41."