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Comment by trixie_ | Hacker News Reader

You mean people without a car? Because the freedom of having a car and being able to go literally anywhere relatively quickly is pretty great. I've lived in both LA and NYC for a number of years. In both places you can easily live 10 minutes from where you work, or an hour away. Where you live/work is up to you.

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LA has the worst traffic in the nation. They responded to traffic problems by just building more and harder, and it just made the problem worse. Which is why they're starting to turn around and embrace multi-modal development.

Cars are nice for some things, but they don't scale well. The bigger the city, the worse cars work.

Ive lived in NY and LA. I definitely had worse traffic problems in NYC than LA.

Ive never seen my GPS do the sort of gymnastics it did when driving to Long Island during rush hour.

https://www.businessinsider.com/the-10-us-cities-with-the-wo...

Of course, NYC is #2, so not much better. But at least there you have a viable option besides driving.

The point is that in NYC you have other transit options. In LA you (realistically) dont.

Living carless in LA is getting better every year. Keep in mind the massive amounts of bike lanes being built, and perfect cycling weather year round. Along with the Metro and rideshare, it's pretty feasible to not have a car.

> Keep in mind the massive amounts of bike lanes being built

Weather I'll give you, how many miles of bike lanes are really being built though? What's the ratio between bike lane miles vs car lane miles in the city? What percentage of the bike lanes are protected vs unprotected? Are there any protected intersections?

I don't dispute that LA is taking biking more seriously, but it'll be a loooooong time before biking is even a second class citizen like walking in LA.

My next door neighbor commutes from South Orange County to DTLA and back every day via train. It's not fast, but he's been doing it 5 days a week for the last 3 years and doesn't ever complain about it when we're chatting.

relatively quickly

I don't know what Los Angeles you live in.

Every workplace in LA has housing within a 20 minute rush hour commute. If you don't want to live close by that's on you. When I do drive places other than work it's not during rush hour so the traffic isn't that bad.

NYC isn't any different and often even if you live close by the commute can still easily be 40 minutes between walking to stations, waiting for trains, and changing trains.

Personally I'd rather be stuck in my car than stuck in a train.

Personally I'd rather be stuck in my car than stuck in a train.

Agree to disagree.

He means with a car. I would be very averse to buying a house somewhere that required me to drive everywhere.

Not having a car is freedom. I’m 35 and have never driven and hopefully never will. Can’t imagine having another expense and hassle to deal with.

I have a nice bicycle, live near work, and can get to the beach or mountains fairly easily by either bike or mass transit.

Pick any 2 points in LA and compare the time between driving and public transit.

Thinking of all the places I travel to around here like the desert, mountains, Vegas, beaches, etc.. I can't imagine not having a car.

Believe it or not there’s a world outside of LA.

I lived without a car for 4 years in Chicago and it was bliss. If I really needed one, I had a car rental place nearby. I took public transportation everywhere. I walked everywhere. I didn't have to worry about where I parked or getting towed or broken into.

I live in LA now and I miss that sense of freedom every day.

Sitting in miles of traffic for hours a day then worrying about parking is just not a life I'd want to live.

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