Oh Glenda, Have you ever lived in a small town? We complain about some traffic at certain times and places, but I think you would laugh yourself silly if you saw what we complain about! Unless something unusual happens, I think I can make it to anyplace in town in 10 minutes!

Ironically, the traffic here in southern Cali is much better than it was in Boston. I lived exactly 2 miles from where I worked and it would take me between 20-40 minutes to get home. The streets just weren't built for the heavy traffic we have today and the backups were horrendous.

Where I live isn't too bad for a metro area but I try to avoid the freeways at rush hour.

It's horrible, here in our small town, due to poor planning on the part of D.O.T. - they don't have the traffic lights properly synchronized, so driving here any time of year is a p.i.t.a. - we don't even want to talk about when the tourists are here!

I live near Atlanta! Need I say more? 7 lanes of traffic going 75 mph. If you aren't in the lane you need to be in, you'd might as well forget it. I would think, because everyone is trying to deal with the traffic, that people would be courteous. HA!.. Not so. Add talking on the phone to the mix. Very dangerous.

*Traffic* is one of the big reasons we moved ten years ago.

The expressway near us was widened. The tollway raised tolls, pushing more trucks onto the expressway. The roar got so bad that we had to keep our bedroom windows closed at night.

A former Naval Air Station west of us was being developed into thousands of new living units and three big box malls.

O'Hare opened a new runway. We had more flights circling over the lake and coming in over our town.

One day I got in the car and started driving north. Finally I got 30 miles north of Chicago near the lake and found...peace.

It's awful! One day I had to wait for TWO cars when I got to the stop sign! :)

No problem, our population is 2200. We don't even have a stop light in town.

The population of my town has grown from 50k to 58k in the 6 years I have been here. There is only one thoroughfare that I would say has traffic and most of the time I can avoid that street. A few years ago they put a Super WalMart on that street and it caused the heavy traffic. Since then they have added more and more stores, restaurants, etc., etc. That street still isn't as bad as CA traffic. I can always get across town in 10 minutes or less. It takes me 7 minutes to get to church which is on the other side of town.
The interstate doesn't even have heavy traffic around here.

I live right outside Washington DC and we have some of the worst traffic in America! But I have lived here most of my life and learn to live with it.

When I worked downtown, I knew people who would drive to work at 4am so they could leave by 1pm and miss afternoon rush hour. Seems crazy, but you can waste a few hours each day stuck in traffic at normal times.

I stay at home with my 2 DD's so I don't have to commute each day. My DH takes the train so his commute is 30 min door to door.

I don't think it's too bad. I live in Mpls/St. Paul and commute about 40 minutes one way to work every day. I get in about 9 and leave after 6 so I usually miss the worst of rush hour. When our interstate bridge collapsed into the Mississippi River, I learned to take the side streets and found a very enjoyable drive to work through parks and by several lakes. I still take this route if the freeway is clogged so pretty much avoid any major traffic. Other times just driving around the neighborhood or doing errands it's not bad at all.

I live 3.3 miles from work. Going to work for the 8 AM shift, I can get there in 15 minutes... but riding my bike, I can get there in 20 minutes.

Of course, on my bike I take neighborhood roads.

Moni

Moonie, I share your pain!!!! And now that I work from home it has gotten worse! This morning I had to step over 2 cats to get down the stairs.

Teresava, I work for an outdoor advertising company with boards in DC, we just did a huge mailing touting that fact!! LOL! One man's frustration is another man's sales tool! I have to say, we were just down there for my boss' wedding, the traffic in Georgetown Friday night was horrid! I couldn't take it.

It's really not all that bad. Williamsburg is growing and we are getting more and more stores. There was hardly any shopping here at all when I first moved here but now we have just about everything I need right here. The price for that is more traffic but it really isn't bad right now.

I have to time my trips to the gym according to the traffic. You have to go when it's not so bad, which really isn't any time at all. We went to San Antonio over the week end and I told my friends I didn't know why they would live there w/ that traffic, and their reply was, "have you been to Houston lately?" Well, not lately, but it's just a PITA. It's bad enough here. Yep!! I'd like to live somewhere smaller.

It depends. It is Orlando, so I usually avoid rush hour. During the day isn't too bad. Its the price you pay for having lots of stores and restaurants. There are toll roads to avoid stoplights. That is DH's choice always, I don't mind taking the regular roads. I don't work so I can go out when most are at work.

Don't even think about parts of this state --ND with all the oil and construction it is a nightmare. I would rather drive downtown Los Angeles during rush time than in Minot. Anyone coming thru-- PLEASE avoid Williston (border ND & MT). And then we add the farm eqipment and all the old people. I live about 30 miles from Minot, and figure an hour to drive to it and get thru even with the bypass.

Depends on the time of day. The morning and evening commute times are bad but the rest of the time is pretty much OK.

We have a pretty good network of freeways. Surface streets are easy to navigate with plenty of signal controlled turn lanes etc.

When I travel I find smaller towns to be worse than the larger urban areas. Less roads, often only one access to the highways instead of multiple ways to get around.

I hated driving in Chicago when I was there. Not because of traffic but the inability to make left turns or U turns without going what seemed like miles out my way.

I loved reading the comments about Houston and Orlando because we moved in October from 6 years of living north of Houston to NE of Orlando. Houston traffic is a nightmare! Even non-rush hour. (Rush hour is 6-10 am and 3-7ish pm.) Orlando traffic is annoying but nothing much compared to Houston. And I've only had to deal with Orlando rush-hour traffic twice. In our little town, anywhere I need to go is 2-15 minutes away and NO TRAFFIC!

I've noticed recently a significant increase in the 5 pm traffic. I live in a county west of Milwaukee and that's the peak time for our traffic; Its commuters who work in the City and are rushing to their homes or other. I attribute the recent increase to holiday shoppers. There's a big rush to stores immediately after work. I've done no official count, just a personal preception, but it seems to be more this year than last year.

There is an east-west railway a block away from my house. I have noticed that when there is an incease in freight on this line, the economy picks up a few days later. In this case, 'freight' is percieved as the number of freight cars passing through, not the number of trains.

No problems here in the country with traffic, some pick up trucks, occasional car or farm equipment, sometimes a golf cart in the summer, and once in awhile a horse.

Sue in Central Indiana

I live in/on Long Island (Lawn Guyland) New York, in a small town on the north shore, far from the ocean beaches and famous "Hamptons". Not much traffic in my town, but if you try to go east-west, you either drive on one of several a parkways (highway) or deal with busy "Jericho Turnpike" which goes from Queens New York(part of NYC) to eastern Long Island. It can be a bear during rush hour hours. And it gets terrible in December when everyone is out shopping. There have been times when I couldn't even get onto Jericho , (even with a traffic light) because it gets backed up, and people run red lights all the time. So you get "gridlock" (Traffic stuck in intersections), blocking everyone. In my opinion, LI has the most discourteous, terrible drivers. Most people on LI grew up in New York City, where you had to grow a thick skin and learn to be a traffic "bully". They tend to run lights, speed,change lanes without signalling , lean on their horns, and do all other sort of traffic misbehavior. Now that I'm retired, I try to go out only when I know traffic will be light. I'll deliberately plan my driving to avoid left turns in traffic. My husband thinks I'm a wimp, I'm just driving "defensively." .

One of our area tourism posters that was developed a few years ago was a photo of our rush hour, 3 cars or so......the caption was "We have rush-minute". They are so right, if we have to sit thru a traffic light twice we become a bit antsy.