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California Today
The pandemic has reshaped California’s traffic patterns, so roads are more crowded than ever in the afternoons. Plus, “Hamilton” returns to San Francisco.
Aug. 11, 2021, 8:51 a.m. ET
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I have a confession: I miss rush hour.
Living in Los Angeles, I had come to depend on that twice-daily swell of traffic like the sunrise and sunset of my freeway-centered life. Knowing the rhythms of the traffic made me feel as if I knew how to navigate my city.
But that predictability is gone. After months of thrillingly empty highways, drivers are back on the roads, but I can never tell when I’m going to encounter them.
Before the pandemic, traffic in most U.S. cities followed a similar pattern: a peak around 6 a.m. and another, slightly higher one around 5 p.m.
But now, the number of drivers on the road increases throughout the day, with a sharp rise in the morning that balloons into a higher peak in the evening. In many places, this has resulted in worse afternoon traffic than before the pandemic.
Ian Shapiro, a home inspector who lives in downtown L.A., said his morning commutes had gotten shorter this year, but what was once a 45-minute afternoon drive from L.A.’s Westside back to downtown has started taking as long as an hour and 45 minutes.
“It’s just chaos in the afternoon,” Shapiro, 42, told me. “It’s going to be a nightmare when kids go back to school.”
In the L.A., San Francisco and San Diego metropolitan regions, drivers have been more likely to hit the roads in the evenings this year compared with 2019, according to Streetlight Data, an analytics company that uses GPS data from cellphones to track traffic patterns.
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The roads tend to be emptier in the mornings since many people haven’t returned to working from their offices. But in the afternoons, those employees are heading home, while remote workers are checking things off their to-do lists, such as grocery shopping, going to the gym or picking up their kids from camp.
“It’s quite crowded again,” Streetlight’s Martin Morzynski told me. “And the only time that’s sort of less crowded these days is the morning.”
Among the four places that Streetlight analyzed for me — San Diego, San Francisco, L.A. and Sacramento — San Diego and Sacramento’s current traffic patterns most closely resemble those of 2019, with more distinct double peaks in the morning and evening.
Both San Diego and Sacramento reopened businesses sooner than the other two cities, suggesting that the rest of the state may also return to 2019 traffic patterns in the coming months as things get back to normal, Morzynski said.
For Shapiro, the congestion is a painful reminder of how wonderfully desolate the freeways were just a year ago. But, he has made peace with the traffic, he told me.
“You just have to accept that’s the way of life in LA.,” he said. “It’s never going to go away.”
For more
The Los Angeles Times explored congestion pricing and other methods to help get us back to the blissfully empty roads of spring 2020.
My colleague Emily Badger focused on how much an increase in remote working could help ease rush hour, writing that “each additional car doesn’t necessarily contribute equally to making traffic worse. Approaching a tipping point, a few more cars can strangle a highway. Similarly, removing a small share can unclog congestion.”
If you read one story, make it this
President Biden said last week that he wanted half of new cars sold to be battery-powered by the end of the decade, an ambitious goal given the current rate is only 4 percent.
But there’s a big obstacle: cost.
Though owners of electric cars can reap savings in the long run, many Americans can’t afford the large investment needed up front. The Chevrolet Bolt, a low-end electric car, starts at $31,000 — nearly $10,000 more than the larger gasoline-powered Chevy Malibu.
Read more from my colleagues Ivan Penn and Niraj Chokshi.
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The rest of the news
Vaccine mandate fight: The California Correctional Peace Officers Association, a union representing correctional officers in the state, has announced its plan to fight a requirement that all state employees be vaccinated by the end of September, The Sacramento Bee reports.
Lottery winner killed: The winner of the $2 million California lottery last year and her 1-year-old daughter were killed in Oklahoma, SFGate reports. The F.B.I. is investigating.
Prison-to-ICE pipeline: Phi Pham, born in a refugee camp in the Philippines, spent the last year as an inmate firefighter in California and was awarded early parole. On the day of his release, Pham was turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, The San Francisco Chronicle reports.
Composting human remains: In California, burial and cremation are the only legally allowed after-death options. But a bill advancing in the State Legislature would legalize composting human remains, The Ventura County Star reports.
Rady Shell: The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park, an outdoor concert hall in San Diego, was planned as an $85 million summertime stage for the San Diego Symphony. But with the coronavirus still spreading, the symphony is planning to extend its stay at least through November.
Angel Squad: Founded in January, a six-month $2,500 program called Angel Squad aims to help anyone become a venture capitalist. It’s one of several ways that people from outside Silicon Valley’s investing elite are joining the ranks of angel investors.
Dog kidnapping: Two French bulldogs, a mother and one of her puppies, were recovered in San Diego, part of a recent trend of dognapping and trafficking Frenchies, SFist reports.
Apple’s homeless encampment: Two years after pledging $2.5 billion to combat the Bay Area’s affordable housing and homelessness crisis, a large encampment is growing on the site Apple earmarked for its North San Jose campus in the Silicon Valley, The Mercury News reports.
Fighting the Dixie fire: By Tuesday, the Dixie fire had torn through 487,764 acres in the sprawling Sierra Nevada, where the Maidu, a local Native American community, have lived for thousands of years. They are now fighting to protect the land as the wildfire rampage continues.
Roux40: Christina Harrison, known as Lala, who grew up in Richmond and Berkeley, will open Roux40, a restaurant celebrating Black heritage cuisine and run entirely by Black women and women of color, in the Temescal district this fall, Berkeleyside reports.
Lake Tahoe cleanup: Gregory Thomas of The San Francisco Chronicle details diving into Lake Tahoe with a nonprofit group removing thousands of pounds of trash from the water.
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Where we’re traveling
Today’s California travel tip comes from Angelin Marie McGowan, a reader who lives in Oakland. Angelin writes:
My hidden gem is a weekend in Philo, CA. Drive-able from the Bay Area (3-4 hours). Our family (2 parents, 2 young kids, 2 dogs) camps at dog-friendly Hendy Woods Campground, which is surrounded by redwoods (keeps the area cool during those hot summer days). Wine tasting is magnificent — reminds me of the old days when Sonoma wasn’t as well known and crowded. Most are kid and dog friendly as well. We usually end the day lounging at the Navarro River. On the drive home, we pick up sandwiches at Lemons’ Philo Market.
Tell us about the best spots to visit in California. Email your suggestions to CAtoday@nytimes.com. We’ll be sharing more in upcoming editions of the newsletter.
And before you go, some good news
After a 17-month hiatus, “Hamilton” is taking the stage this week at San Francisco’s Orpheum Theater.
Producers say that the West Coast production is the first to reopen in North America, The Mercury News reports. The play will return to Broadway in New York in mid-September.
A negative Covid test or proof of vaccination will be required to see the musical so, ticketholders, don’t throw away your shot (cards).
Thanks for reading. I’ll be back tomorrow. — Soumya
P.S. Here’s today’s Mini Crossword, and a clue: Messenger ___ (what the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines use) (3 letters).
Steven Moity contributed to California Today. You can reach the team at CAtoday@nytimes.com.
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