I need opinions , about traffic masses of traffic

[blues90]

I went out yesterday , 30 mile drive on the ventura freeway . this was from 8:30 am to 9:30am then a return trip from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm . Now I don;t travel freeways often but how is it possible for the freeways to be in such a constant state of mass endless traffic . I felt most people work during these hours and if so what are all these drivers out there doing , they can't all be traveling salesmen or on the road for their jobs or whatever .

Can anyone offer their point of view on this ?

[karlrschneider]

1. They are trying to "beat the rush"

...

[MADem]

2. You hit rush hour on the way in and lunch hour on the way back.

Flex time makes rush hours in most major cities go from six thirty to ten. Lots of people like going out for lunch, so you're going to see more cars from eleven to two, and then, the early birds on flex time start leaving to go home around three or so.

[sutz12]

3. You misunderstood.

I used to live in SoCal, and the name is somewhat misleading. I know they call it the "Ventura Freeway" but really it is just the park and ride lot for the shuttle running between Malibu and Marina del Rey. Don't go that way any more. You'll be better off for it.

[Initech]

4. It's California. Here, there is no such thing as rush hour.

Over the course of the day, ANYTHING can cause the traffic to be backed up for miles on end. It can be anything from a tire in the middle of the lanes to a full on four-car pile up.

[sam sarrha]

5. and at the present rate of Migration from Mexico if amnesty is offered and each one brings over 6

6 family members, ad infinitum, in a little over 20 years there will be about 100 million extra people on those roads...

not to mention the demands on water, power, gas, Oil, sewer service, schools..

we need to consider the subjects like these in terms of 50 years.. but with global warming and the ocean currents ceasing to flow that have heated up the northern areas of the country, which will go into ice age conditions.. maybe that should be 10 or 15 years.. because there will be mass migrations within this country from uninhabitable areas like the east coast and southern hurricane coasts.. and drought and desertification of the mid west

[Breeze54]

6. It's like that in many areas of the country nowadays!

I avoid the worst highways, in my area.

[rumpel]

7. parents to and from chauffeuring their kids for the am

and after 3pm, in addition to all the extra curricular events, play dates of their kids.

the 11:30 - 12:30 crowd sounds like lunch and lunch meetings crowd...405 is maybe worse - I was also never able to figure that out.

I am pretty sure about the kids related theory, I live by an elementary school and their kindergarten has 2 drop off times in the morning, which is a little different from 1-5k drop off. For residents it's total gridlock and chaos - you have those that double park create extra imaginary lanes etc. then they move on to the next school for their other kids, who are in different schools starting at different times. Then they are off to run their errands, work or appointments etc.

Public transportation is a must, it's the only sustainable way in the future.

[stevedeshazer]

8. Trucks

All hours. Drive one myself.

Big gargantuan ones, service vans and pickups, or ones like the 16' box truck I drive.

Mix that in with shopping suburban moms and dads, you get eggroll.