For most people living in Los Angeles, traffic is a given. I am used to it by now, but whenever I visit a city with a really nice public transportation system, I feel a little bit jealous. It doesn’t make me jealous enough to trade the 300 days of sunshine that LA averages per year for a subway system, but the prospect of never sitting in traffic again is tempting.

Since, permanently relocating to a city just for a light rail system is just a bit nutzo, I put together some info that may make traffic a little more manageable. We all know that abstinence is 100% effective, so the best way to deal with traffic is to avoid it completely. Check www.sigalert.com before you venture out on those freeways. Their traffic maps cover all California Freeways. If your route is covered in red dots (indicating heavy traffic) take a detour through some “greener” pastures. They even give you average speed limits for cars currently traveling on sections of many freeways.

Granted, most of the time traffic is unavoidable. There are still quite a few activities that you can do in your car which can make the gridlock as painless as possible. And I am not talking about getting on the phone. Oh please. God. No, not the cell phone! Don’t even pull out that bionic businessman’s Bluetooth headset either. I am talking about audiobooks. Learn Spanish or get a Tony Robbins Seminar on tape. What about Harry Potter? Those books are thicker than A Tale of Two Cities. Get the whole book read to you by Jim Dale while you are sitting still on the 405 Freeway. By the way, Jim Dale is a Grammy Award winning narrator who has an incredible talent for capturing characters in his voice work. He voiced all of the characters in all of the Harry Potter Audiobooks. If you would like a “cheaper” source for audiobooks, look for bit torrents, but beware .

Whenever I know that I am going to be in traffic during the evening, I turn on Metropolis on 89.9 KCRW. The music they play is an eclectic mix of indie rock, ambient grooves, drum and bass beats, with plenty of international influence and DJ remixes. To top it off, DJ Jason Bentley has a voice that is so calming it can melt the most savage road rage.

Another good radio station for longer drives is Indie 103.1. The indie rock played on this station is usually free from repetition unlike some of the other music stations in Los Angeles.  Plus, if you like your music mixed with dry British humor, listen to Jonesy’s Jukebox in the evening on 103.1.

 Hopefully, these ideas will help you get through that commute. Drop a comment with some other ideas.

Tags: Travel · Ramblings ·