[ad_1] Striking images of Los Angeles’ notoriously clogged motorways inundated with cars has done little raise holiday spirits this week, as million
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Striking images of Los Angeles’ notoriously clogged motorways inundated with cars has done little raise holiday spirits this week, as millions in the US begin to travel for Thanksgiving.
Helicopter footage of the city’s 405 Freeway showed thousands of headlights moving at a snail’s pace on Wednesday, prompting a number of humorous comments from cringing social media users.
The Transportation Security Administration said it expects to screen 2.6 million passengers on Tuesday and 2.7 million passengers on Wednesday and many more through the week.
“There are no circumstances on earth that would lead me to live in a place that has ever had this much traffic,” one user wrote on Twitter.
“This makes my teeth itch,” another joked.
While the footage has been viewed and shared by millions, some locals weren’t too surprised, claiming it was just another regular day in LA.
While Los Angeles is regularly thought to be the worst developed city in the world for traffic congestion, a revealing 2018 study showed how global cities compare.
Melbourne and Sydney have worse traffic congestion than New York, less comprehensive public transport networks than Lisbon and more traffic pollution than Mexico City.
Overall, Copenhagen came out on top while Sao Paulo languished at the bottom of the Urban Mobility Index released by navigation data firm Here Technology.
The index looked at a series of factors including traffic flow, public transport systems and emissions.
And for the two Australian cities in the index, it wasn’t great news. Overall, Melbourne ranked 20th worst out of 38 cities. Sydney fared even worse at 30, placing it only slightly better than Los Angeles for transport mobility.
“Australian cities suffer from traffic congestion (and) more needs to be done,” said Here Technology’s Ross Caldow.
The company used data from mobile handsets and connected vehicles, among other sources, to see how slow cities really were.
Black Friday sales contribute to traffic chaos
“Black Friday” sales across the nation have also contributed to the November gridlock in Los Angeles.
US retailers have gearing up for the annual shopping extravaganza that kicks off the holiday gift-giving season with price discounts and chaotic crowds.
Held the day after Thanksgiving and increasingly copied in Europe and beyond, “Black Friday” has evolved into a catchphrase for a multiday period in late November that concludes with “Cyber Monday” and the weekend in between the two events.
This year’s markdowns are expected to be especially deep, reflecting the pressure stores feel to lure in a US consumer jaded by still-high inflation and the upheaval of the pandemic years.
Forecasters warned commuters to expect heavy consumer traffic, with the National Retail Federation (NRF) predicting more than 182 million consumers will shop in stores and online over the shopping weekend.
That turnout — equal to more than half the US population — would top by 16 million last year’s level and constitute a national record.
– with AFP
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