I am here short term on a school project, and I am applauding any local shoppers who must navigate these roads, traffic, and aggressive driving. Bless you all and be safe out there.

Yes. The older I get, the less I like cities and their traffic!

I had to drive my rental car nearby to South Baltimore yesterday for a bank need. I legit felt that I was in an episode of Grand Theft Auto video game. This included the police car who drove down the middle of two traffic lanes, lights and sirens blazing, pulling donuts, and then he stopped at a McDonalds parking area.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/12/2021 08:13PM by sbobgal.

A resident of a major city knows the traffic patterns and parking tricks. When I lived in LA, my friend and I went to a Lakers game at the Staples Center. I drove, and she found free parking on the street 3 blocks away.

I live near a GTA city. It's terrifying.

reminds me of phoenix. highway 7 lanes each way and idiots cut across all 7 lanes no blinker. I take my quiet Buffalo, NY where rush hour is 2 hours evening and 2 hours morning max and you can get anywhere in 30 mins or less on non bad weather days which is 300-350 days a year.

Haha Buffalo NY!!! So I guess we can't excuse the aggressive drivers on the lack of lanes in Phoenix!

Knoxville, TN area highways were so frightening also when I went through on a visit, due to the high speed limits, and solid walls of trucks and traffic!

If someone else drives and I know that I can leave soon, I can tolerate traffic and huge cities for short periods of time. I used to enjoy them. Now, I want open spaces and views of nature from my level (not the top floor of a skyscraper).

The older I get, the more I appreciate the quiet rural life I have.

A shop is 60 miles away? It'll take an hour to get there. Not 4 hours at a 25 mph speed limit where traffic is actually doing way, way less than 25 mph! I drove 80 miles yesterday morning on what's considered a main east-west highway, and never saw another vehicle, either coming or going!

Saw lots of cows, horses, and bucolic nature, though!

When I went to get my driver's license renewal, the camera was broken. The examiner wrote me out a note to carry with me, not to give me a ticket for an expired license! I carried that note for months, until the camera was fixed, LOL. Never had to test the efficacy of that hand-written note, but I bet it would have stood up!!!

Try THAT in California ROTFLMFAO!!!

@HonnyBrown wrote:

A resident of a major city knows the traffic patterns and parking tricks. When I lived in LA, my friend and I went to a Lakers game at the Staples Center. I drove, and she found free parking on the street 3 blocks away.

I'm a New Yorker who visited LA 3 years ago and despite LA's horrific traffic reputation, I found it an easier drive than NYC. Mostly because if you are in a traffic jam (and you are ALWAYS in a traffic jam) people are pretty chill about letting you change lanes if you need to work over to that surprise exit you need but didn't realize you were right on top of. In New York if you try to change lanes at the last minute, the guy in the next lane takes it as a personal challenge to box you out.

Ah no Ceasesmith, there are actually some very nice people in Los Angleles. I was recently stuck in Austin Texas where I feared driving as the streets were so unruly and traffic was terrible on the highway. I ended up getting stuck in the weather there and my 30 day hold on my mail was over including the 10 day pick up window.. Called the local post office in Los angeles and was suprised someone actually picked up the phone. But the postmaster there in one of the big post offices (huge place with 6 open windows) was on the line. He said he would keep my mail for me as long as I needed him to and said just come in whenever you get back. He had it all neatly packed for me .
But what you mention below is the bane of mystery shopping. I dont think there is a scheduler out there who understands that it takes me a half hour to drive to an address 6 miles away and then another 10 or 15 minutes to find parking and walk back to the shop location or else feed a meter $2 an hour to complete a $7 fee shop. Of course if they have lived here they get it. And most of those shops where I have to talk with someone require a long wait for help every time. But at least finding my way around is easy now that i live here for a long time and I have the gift of finding free parking usually but there are just some places where it is all permit or pay parking so I do not go there.

@ceasesmith wrote:

The older I get, the more I appreciate the quiet rural life I have.

A shop is 60 miles away? It'll take an hour to get there. Not 4 hours at a 25 mph speed limit where traffic is actually doing way, way less than 25 mph! I drove 80 miles yesterday morning on what's considered a main east-west highway, and never saw another vehicle, either coming or going!

Saw lots of cows, horses, and bucolic nature, though!

When I went to get my driver's license renewal, the camera was broken. The examiner wrote me out a note to carry with me, not to give me a ticket for an expired license! I carried that note for months, until the camera was fixed, LOL. Never had to test the efficacy of that hand-written note, but I bet it would have stood up!!!

Try THAT in California ROTFLMFAO!!!