I recently returned from a trip to Southern California and spent four days commuting between north San Diego County where my sister lives and southwest LA County where my daughter attends college.

Although my friends and relatives in California bemoan a sluggish economy, there is one fact that still rings true: the freeways of SoCal are as busy as ever.

I’ve driven many places in my lifetime, starting out with the transcontinental running away from my home in Colorado at age 18 to the three-week trips with small children in the minivan to Mexico. I have rarely stopped since. Perhaps having a father who got such a kick out of road trips is what engendered the same bug in me. I’ve made so many road trips all over everywhere that getting out a road map or GPS is rather redundant. I have an excellent sense of direction and can find my way around just fine on my own, thank you very much.

Michigan has some of the worst freeway systems in the United States. With only three lanes going north and south on I-75 and sometimes only two lanes going east and west on I-94, potholes in spring, road construction in summer and single lanes carved out of the snow in winter, it’s sometimes faster to use the surface streets to get around.

I’ve driven hundreds of freeways, from the Spaghetti Bowl in downtown St. Paul to the scary speedway that is the New Jersey Turnpike to I-75 through Atlanta during an ice storm. Driving in Southern California is a piece of cake, or at least a smooth piece of asphalt.

First of all, there are plenty of lanes, from four to six to eight, all the way from San Diego through the Valley. One might view traffic with dismay, but if there are a multitude of lanes to choose from, cars tend to move and keep moving. For the environmentally conscious, there is the carpool lane, although sometimes using it is slower than the using the other six.

Most drivers in Southern California are courteous. They know when to use their signals and pull over to the shoulder when they have accidents. The slow cars seem to stay in the slow lanes so more aggressive drivers can get around them.

Article Author: Joanne Huspek

I'm an aspiring novelist with a day job which makes writing an interesting clandestine tryst. Currently a member of Romance Writers of America and the Greater Detroit Romance Writers of America. My web site (www.joannehuspek.com) is currently in limbo, …

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