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And how many times have you had to slow down suddenly in your 18 wheeler because someone was not paying attention to their driving? It is absolutely amazing that there are not a dramatically larger number of accidents on the freeways in CA than there are. I only have to get up on the 405 for ten minutes and I can count at least four potentional accidents because someone was either careless or not paying attention to their driving or both. Not to even consider the reckless driving that is prevalent on the freeways in CA. It is not the number of accidents eliminated but the number of accidents prevented.

"I only have to get up on the 405 for ten minutes and I can count at least four potentional accidents because someone was either careless or not paying attention to their driving or both. Not to even consider the reckless driving that is prevalent on the freeways in CA. It is not the number of accidents eliminated but the number of accidents prevented."

I hear that. I don't live in the L.A. area, but I drive there from further north a lot. I've stopped using the 101-405 combination completely. I simply will not drive on the 101 south of Oxnard, nor on the 405 between the 101 and LAX. Ever.

These days, I cut from the 101 over to the 126 in Ventura, then pick up the 5 to the 210, and take it down to the 605, then to the 405. Normally, I'm on my way to Costa Mesa, so the route works very nicely. In the morning, I'm going against the flow, and the same in the afternoon.

Since I make this drive in one day, the total driving time is about 9-10 hours. If I used the 101-405, it would be more like 14 hours, even though the distance is much shorter.

And how many times have you had to slow down suddenly in your 18 wheeler because someone was not paying attention to their driving?

Never, that I can remember. But I’m not the best person to ask because all of my driving occurred in or around Portland, Oregon and I purposely drove mostly between 10pm and about 9am just to avoid traffic.

Still, you usually don’t slow down suddenly. If you’re loaded you can’t, and if you aren’t loaded the brakes tend to lock and the truck and trailer tend to “chatter” and hop around, so you can’t exactly slow down suddenly without getting all squirrelly in the road and grinding flat spots in your tires.

I imagine most people just sit back and relax in CA though. No use in getting in too big a hurry because nobody’s going anywhere.

But you’re right – a lot of people don’t pay attention or are cruising along exceeding their ability to react or the ability of their vehicle to stop/move/slow down if something happens. One of my favorite sights was a guy in a new Mercedes sedan. It was one of the big ones. At the time Mercedes always bragged about their fancy new anti-lock braking system in their commercials.

Anyway, it was raining lightly and the Mercedes with its anti-lock brakes stopped just fine. Too bad the Dodge pickup behind him didn’t have them. Or the Chevy van behind him, or the Cutlass behind him, etc. Ha. It just goes to show you that even though it rains a great deal there they still want to rip around bumper to bumper and shoulder to shoulder like it’s Daytona.