L.A. Can't Drive

In LA:

In NYC:

Idiocy Meter

Asshole Meter

It was great spending the weekend back home in New York City.  The streets were still filled with the focused aggression of New York/New Jersey drivers, but again at least people were signaling.  Also, if someone cut you off, an angry honk was all the retort you needed–no aggressive tailgating or other acts of vindictive reciprocity that you see all too often in L.A.  Yet bad habits still remain….I remember about a decade ago, the city tried this huge push to cite drivers who block intersections.  Intersections, like this one in the bottom photo of E.37th and Park were crosshatched and had clear signs posted saying “Don’t Block the Box – Fine + 2 Points”–and the fines were doubled.

Well, as you can clearly see, box-blocking is still something that New York has in common with L.A.  The top photo was taken back in L.A. at the intersection of Western and Santa Monica.  The asshole and his friend in the busted pickup didn’t give two sh*ts that they were blocking all westbound traffic on Santa Monica.  In fact, the only thing they cared about was that the traffic light for their direction of travel was turning amber, which apparently is the universal cue among dicks to accelerate despite the fact that there was absolutely no room to clear the interesection.  I do think it’s pretty funny that it required an entire Sysco delivery big rig to block all southbound traffic on Park Avenue–not an easy feat for one vehicle to accomplish (plus truck drivers usually know better).  To make matters worse, this guy was going straight and was not making a left turn from Park–ie., he could have easily waited for the next cycle of green lights.  Maybe the city should quadruple the fines for blocking the box.  As for L.A., let’s try doubling the fines first to see if we can help ease traffic congestion even just a little bit.

Filed under: aggressive, observation