Why Rain Driving Sucks In LA

There’s a running joke that we are awful rain drivers, a complaint you’ll hear from natives and transplants alike. In defense of my fellow Angelenos, there are good reason why. In my experience we don’t often experience the pleasant drizzle that is common in other parts of the country, including reputed soak-city USA and Redfin HQ, Seattle. No, we usually get ours in downpour. The sort of hard, thwacking droplets that knock leaves off trees, torrents off the sidewalks and often, much worse things. It storms here, or not at all. In that sense, we behave no different than any other city coping with a dumping sky.

Any driver in the rain deals with the expected decrease visibility and stopping distance (‘two-to-three times more stopping distance on wet pavement’ is required according to the Auto Club of Southern California). Roads become treacherously slick from grease. True enough anywhere, but here in the car capital of the planet, the build-up oil and other automotive detritus can accumulate over dry spells as prolonged as 10 months. That’s a bad vehicular cocktail.

At night, things get even worse. Many of the streets around the city seem laughably ill-prepared for precipitation. Lacking reflective road bumps, the dark of night effectively transforms the surface into a glossy black mirror with bright sheens of light obscuring painted dividers. Kinda pretty, but makes it difficult to determine which lane you’re in. Thankfully, our freeways seem to be better equipped.

Here are some wet weather tips from The Auto Club, and ABC7(video).

I leave you with a quote from The New York Times which once proclaimed, “Rain is a dark and destructive stranger to Angelenos.”

Stay safe out there.

photo credit: P-Kittye