To beat the congestion, she said, she'll be changing the time of her 3-year-old daughter's afternoon swim lesson next month at the Westside Jewish Center pool.
The problem: The lesson is 15 minutes, but it takes Richland 20 minutes to get to the center in traffic and 20 minutes to get home.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Tuesday, June 23, 2009 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 4 National Desk 2 inches; 63 words Type of Material: Correction
Westside traffic: An article in Sunday's California section about traffic on Los Angeles' Westside referred to Rodeo Drive and Ocean Park Avenue. The street names should have been Rodeo Road and Ocean Park Boulevard. The story also indicated that Palms Boulevard was a north-south thoroughfare. It actually runs east-west. Also, a secondary reference to Beverlywood resident Jana Richland misstated her name as Richmond.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Sunday, June 28, 2009 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 4 National Desk 2 inches; 65 words Type of Material: Correction
Westside traffic: An article in the June 21 California section about traffic on Los Angeles' Westside referred to Rodeo Drive and Ocean Park Avenue. The street names should have been Rodeo Road and Ocean Park Boulevard. The story also indicated that Palms Boulevard was a north-south thoroughfare. It actually runs east-west. Also, a secondary reference to Beverlywood resident Jana Richland misstated her name as Richmond.
"There's no way I'm going to do that," she said.
Experts said more drivers are becoming "direct copers" like Richmond and Glueck, varying driving patterns or daily schedules because of snarled roadways.
"Direct copers are going to say, 'What is the most logical way of dealing with this?' " said Dwight A. Hennessy, a psychology professor at Buffalo State College in New York who has studied the ways driving affects motorists.
But as people take proactive measures and seek other routes, Hennessy said, traffic spreads to roads that used to be relatively open.
One bad spot that Richland tries to avoid is San Vicente and La Cienega boulevards, a crossroad near the Beverly Center mall and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
During a traffic count taken on a Thursday last August, 17,695 vehicles were driven on San Vicente. That figure increased 118% -- with 38,611 vehicles counted -- on a Monday this April.
In Santa Monica, traffic at the city's 20 busiest morning and evening intersections increased 7% from 2002 to 2007, a Times review of city records shows.
Earlier this year, Santa Monica resident Nancy Geshke tried a different way to beat morning traffic while trying to do a good turn for the environment. She left her car parked and began riding her bike to school with her 8-year-old son and 7-year-old daughter.
As they pedaled past Santa Monica College and across Pico Boulevard, cars zoomed by or darted in and out of parking lots, Geshke said. They tried two other routes. Same thing.
"It was like taking your life in your own hands," she said. "With kids, it's too scary."
Now she takes them in the car. A nonprofit consultant who works from home, Geshke tries to limit her driving to late morning and early afternoon. "Any time after 3 o'clock," she said, "it's a nightmare."
Indeed, evening rush hour traffic counts were 9% higher at Santa Monica's 20 busiest intersections than those sampled during morning hours in 2007, according to the most recent data available. (City officials say the difference is probably largely the result of motorists leaving for work at staggered hours but arriving home more closely together.)
