I have always heard stories about San Francisco traffic. How it is significantly more difficult to navigate than the traffic in the suburbs in which I reside, and how easy it is to get into a car accident. I've always taken these stories with a moderate amount of skepticism, usually arguing that those who complain about city traffic are just bad drivers who don't know that they are bad drivers. Today however, I understand why people say that city traffic is terrible: because it is.
I learned this important lesson today while I was on the way home from an important job interview. Once the interview was over, I got in my car with high spirits and turned on my GPS. After a couple of seconds, it had calculated a route home and I left with the intention of arriving at my house within the hour. Sadly, this was not the case. I drove for about ten, maybe fifteen minutes before finding myself in San Francisco. (To clarify, I purposefully did not drive through San Francisco to get to the office where the job interview was being held, preferring to stay on highways in order to save time and gas.) I didn't mind going through San Francisco at that point since there wasn't anywhere I needed to be for the next couple of hours, so I went ahead and drove on through. That was when quickly found out how different it is to drive in a major city.
When driving in San Francisco, you have to really keep your eyes open. There is only one street light for each direction when at an intersection, and they are relatively tiny. This didn't help when I had tall trucks parked on the side of the road blocking the light so I couldn't tell whether or not it was red or green. Thankfully, the kind drivers of San Francisco were more than happy to honk and yell behind me, informing me that the light was green. I don't know what I would have done without them. Another useful tip is that San Francisco drivers for the most part don't want others to change lanes if it means that they themselves have to sacrifice a few seconds of time. I had to wait until I had just enough room to squeeze into a left lane and make it the other person's fault if they hit me.
The GPS didn't help out much either. I missed so many turns that the GPS had to "recalculate" about 15 times. This was either due to me not able to change lanes so that I could turn, or me turning at the street that was going at a 45 degree deviation to the right when the GPS wanted me to go to the street that was going at a 55 degree deviation to the right. I know that some might call my driving ability into question at this point, but I must note that the "highlighted route" feature on this particular GPS is borderline broken when in an area with many different streets. The "highlighted route" was so highlighted, that it actually blocked other streets from view, making it unclear as to which street was the one I needed to turn onto. I got to a point where I was yelling at my GPS due to the fact that every time I missed a turn, it would say "recalculating" in a snobbish tone, which only fueled my anger.
After about 50 minutes of weaving through all of downtown SF, I miraculously found the freeway I was so desperately searching for. That freeway was like a tunnel out of prison, and renewed my faith that one could escape the clutches of San Francisco without having some sort of brain aneurysm. I arrived home 40 minutes later, tired, but grateful that I made it out of that labyrinth.
Now I will admit that I haven't had the most experience driving in a major city, and the quality of my experience would likely improve if I were to continue driving in SF. But overall, driving a vehicle in a major city sucks. My advice to those who think they may take a trip to SF or any other major city is to use public transportation. In the past, I used Bart to travel in and out of SF, and now will continue to do so whenever possible.
Don't drive in San Francisco
I have always heard stories about San Francisco traffic. How it is significantly more difficult to navigate than the traffic in the suburbs in which I reside, and how easy it is to get into a car accident. I've always taken these stories with a moderate amount of skepticism, usually arguing that those who complain about city traffic are just bad drivers who don't know that they are bad drivers. Today however, I understand why people say that city traffic is terrible: because it is.
I learned this important lesson today while I was on the way home from an important job interview. Once the interview was over, I got in my car with high spirits and turned on my GPS. After a couple of seconds, it had calculated a route home and I left with the intention of arriving at my house within the hour. Sadly, this was not the case. I drove for about ten, maybe fifteen minutes before finding myself in San Francisco. (To clarify, I purposefully did not drive through San Francisco to get to the office where the job interview was being held, preferring to stay on highways in order to save time and gas.) I didn't mind going through San Francisco at that point since there wasn't anywhere I needed to be for the next couple of hours, so I went ahead and drove on through. That was when quickly found out how different it is to drive in a major city.
When driving in San Francisco, you have to really keep your eyes open. There is only one street light for each direction when at an intersection, and they are relatively tiny. This didn't help when I had tall trucks parked on the side of the road blocking the light so I couldn't tell whether or not it was red or green. Thankfully, the kind drivers of San Francisco were more than happy to honk and yell behind me, informing me that the light was green. I don't know what I would have done without them. Another useful tip is that San Francisco drivers for the most part don't want others to change lanes if it means that they themselves have to sacrifice a few seconds of time. I had to wait until I had just enough room to squeeze into a left lane and make it the other person's fault if they hit me.
The GPS didn't help out much either. I missed so many turns that the GPS had to "recalculate" about 15 times. This was either due to me not able to change lanes so that I could turn, or me turning at the street that was going at a 45 degree deviation to the right when the GPS wanted me to go to the street that was going at a 55 degree deviation to the right. I know that some might call my driving ability into question at this point, but I must note that the "highlighted route" feature on this particular GPS is borderline broken when in an area with many different streets. The "highlighted route" was so highlighted, that it actually blocked other streets from view, making it unclear as to which street was the one I needed to turn onto. I got to a point where I was yelling at my GPS due to the fact that every time I missed a turn, it would say "recalculating" in a snobbish tone, which only fueled my anger.
After about 50 minutes of weaving through all of downtown SF, I miraculously found the freeway I was so desperately searching for. That freeway was like a tunnel out of prison, and renewed my faith that one could escape the clutches of San Francisco without having some sort of brain aneurysm. I arrived home 40 minutes later, tired, but grateful that I made it out of that labyrinth.
Now I will admit that I haven't had the most experience driving in a major city, and the quality of my experience would likely improve if I were to continue driving in SF. But overall, driving a vehicle in a major city sucks. My advice to those who think they may take a trip to SF or any other major city is to use public transportation. In the past, I used Bart to travel in and out of SF, and now will continue to do so whenever possible.
I refuse to drive anywhere near an urban area. My town of 100k is too much for me.
Please Log In to post.
Log in to comment