How is it where you are from ?
- Thread starter PermenentMarker
- Start date
Just to clarify, you must mean in the Baltimore area.
I live in Los Angeles, and we love our cars (there's an old song "Nobody Walks in L.A."). Manual transmissions are pretty common here, and until my newest car (a 2007 Prius), I always had a manual. I would have gotten a manual Prius, but they only come in CVT (it's an electro-hybrid-mechanical-planetary-magical transmission).
The weather here is great - it was just in the 80's F (27 degrees C) a few days ago, where it's suppose to be Winter. The coldest it typically gets is mid 50's during the day (13 degrees C). I've gone skiing 2 hours away (crappy mountains) one weekend, then body-board surfing the next.
Housing is very expensive compared to the rest of the US, at about double the average price per square foot / meter.
Public / Mass transit is a joke in Los Angeles. There's a stigma to taking the bus - an assumption many people on it are crazy / homeless. I just took the Metro train last weekend for the 2nd time in 5 years, just because it was easier to park my car in Little Tokyo, and take the Metro into Chinatown for a parade, then park there.
Consequently, we have horrible horrible traffic as most people drive to work, and due to urban / suburban sprawl, people tend to live far from work. My morning commute takes about 1 hour to travel 25 miles (40 km), when I leave at 6:30am. If I leave at 8, it'll take me 2 hours.
Gasoline prices are higher than most of the rest of the Country, but nothing like Europe ($4 / gallon or about 1 euro / liter).
Getting a drivers license is a lot easier here than most places in Europe. Consequently, we have a lot of bad drivers. When it rains in Los Angeles (happens a few times a year), traffic grinds to a halt, due to accidents.
It's a very diverse population. You can meet people from all sorts of places, and eat lots of different kinds of food. The cuisine tends to be healthier than many other parts of the country - less heavy and more fresh stuff.
The night life is (from what I remember when I had one), was decent, but not as crazy as New York. Most clubs here close by 2 or 3am. Some places I've been to in the country, bars seem to close by 10pm.
The beaches are great - not exactly pristine, but good on a hot day. There are hills and mountains great for hikes / photography. We've got a lot of museums (of course a big Automotive museum), but the art tends to pale in comparison to Europe, where most of the art came from.
I Love L.A.
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An American capable of utilising both manual transmission and the metric system? Horrible, unpatriotic Abomination!
Jokesy. I envy you for the weather (-15
Jokesy. I envy you for the weather (-15
I Google converted to Metric for the benefit of people from the rest of the World (excluding Commonnwealth nations). Funny thing is, I work in a lab where I deal with Metric all the time - but I still can't imagine with 27 degrees C is in the context of weather.
Pretty damned summer. Some weaker locals would already call it 'hot' or 'oh god it burnssss', but to most here 27
I love how you converted all American measurement units to non-American ones in your post, Mormegil 
The wheater is very similar where I live. Sometimes we have "small summers", as we call it, in the winter, with a temperature of 30
The wheater is very similar where I live. Sometimes we have "small summers", as we call it, in the winter, with a temperature of 30
No, I mean everywhere.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5487437 (older article)
also this...
I'd say 7.7% is rare.
Oh, what sheltered lives we lead.....
I wonder if commercial vehicles are included in that survey? Try driving fully loaded 1,200 bushel hopper bottom pulled by a day cab '74 Mack with a two-stick-5 speed, braking, and talking on the cell phone at the same time.....There really ought to be a law. One really needs to respect those big rigs on the road. Contrary to what many women apparently think, a loaded 18 wheeler doesn't stop or turn on a dime.
If you have any mechanical aptitude or physical co-ordination at all, learning to drive a standard is a piece of cake. What was tougher for me was trying to get used to shifting with the left hand and driving on the left side of the road when in England. It was just so counter-intuitive.
I wonder if commercial vehicles are included in that survey? Try driving fully loaded 1,200 bushel hopper bottom pulled by a day cab '74 Mack with a two-stick-5 speed, braking, and talking on the cell phone at the same time.....There really ought to be a law. One really needs to respect those big rigs on the road. Contrary to what many women apparently think, a loaded 18 wheeler doesn't stop or turn on a dime.
If you have any mechanical aptitude or physical co-ordination at all, learning to drive a standard is a piece of cake. What was tougher for me was trying to get used to shifting with the left hand and driving on the left side of the road when in England. It was just so counter-intuitive.
I guess you're right, looks like it has dropped quite a bit over the last couple of decades. I was Googling around to see if the percentages were different in Los Angeles, but couldn't find any good stats.
In the 90s, most of my group of friends all drove stick - of course we were also racers and wanna-be racers (lowered cars and everything). I guess I had a biased view.
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I once had a bad case of sunburn.
I decided the pool/beach wasn't a nice place to be.
Interesting topic I wish there were more people in eastern European countries who added to it. I've traveled to a lot of places but the most odd things I've seen were all in Russia and Ukraine.
I like in Toronto and it's pretty much the OP minus the bad roads and nicer weather in winter compared to Montreal which becomes a frozen hell. After living in BC and Montreal though I would say the only bad thing for me is the terrible skiing which sucks because I like to work as a ski instructor and sometimes there will be not good enough conditions even on christmas break.
Some canadians mistakenly believe there is a lot of crime in toronto but they don't realize how huge the GTA is and how far removed crapholes like Scarborough are from the actual city.
I like in Toronto and it's pretty much the OP minus the bad roads and nicer weather in winter compared to Montreal which becomes a frozen hell. After living in BC and Montreal though I would say the only bad thing for me is the terrible skiing which sucks because I like to work as a ski instructor and sometimes there will be not good enough conditions even on christmas break.
Some canadians mistakenly believe there is a lot of crime in toronto but they don't realize how huge the GTA is and how far removed crapholes like Scarborough are from the actual city.
Can you type "awesome" for me.
Just once.
Please?
nope but I'll give you this awzm picture
(its even topic related)
Spoiler!
