LA traffic

The other night we were driving cross town at eight in the evening on the 5 lane free way and there was queues. At eight?! This is just so far from quality of life.
We where two in the car and therefore we could use the luxury lane, it was much faster but still not completely free. But sitting there I started looking on the other cars in the other lanes and they were only carrying one passenger, almost exclusively, there was the odd car pulling off the freeway traveling through the other lanes with more than one human in them but most cars out there, more than most, close to all cars are used as a single person transportation. This is sick. What we need is a transportation system with smaller footprint per person, flexible enough to take you over vast distances and it has to be quite fast. I think there might be a need for a cultural change to have people leave their cars, let go of the ice-rink and get into the game so to speak. Gas prices being so low is one incentive to use. I have not tried using what ever transportation system they have in place so I can't say anything about the effectiveness of it.

Stinky LA

We have returned the car, packed our bags, counted our economical damages and said good bye. I'm off to NY in a few hours and brother is gong to hang out with the double named character who has been very hard to get a hold off until now. I think LA was something of a let down, might have to do with failure to meet any of our contacts here and also the inaccessibility of the city it self, it is so spread out you do not just benefit from a car, it is the bare minimum. A helicopter would be beneficial. Also we were tired and probably needed to take some time off and just relax and watch Swedish television after all the Lego-hunting. I would have loved to get some party going but without local connections that is very hard on the boarder of meaningless. And with the negative element of someone who hates it, the idea of even trying makes me a bit sick. Who knows I might come back some day and then LA might try to redeem herself, but I am not sure about it.
With the aftertaste I understand why everyone I ever talked to about this city with were so reluctant. It is a bit sad that such a big city can attract this bad reputation and no-one is willing to spill the beans. Maybe because their experience has been as intangible as ours? Usually when I visit a city my friends in the area make some effort to meet up. That happening here seem impossible. Just like one woman told us: the traffic situation make everyone reluctant to just meet up and hang or have a dinner even though it is really close the queues stop spontaneity.