In Los Angeles, it's really not the traffic, it's the parking.
Every Angeleno has endured that nerve-wracking search for a spot, circling and circling and circling city blocks. Then, when you finally find a space, you've got to solve the logic puzzle that L.A. parking signs can sometimes be.
For years now, every parking restriction on a spot has had its own sign. A sign for loading zone hours. A sign for street-cleaning hours. A sign for parking permit details. That meant, sometimes, a single parking spot could have seven or eight parking signs, which can be maddening.
The city is now trying to fix that problem. This weekend, L.A. rolled out 100 new parking signs in a small section of downtown for a six-month trial run. If it all works out, the new signs would mean only one sign per parking spot.
The signs are grids — each day has a column that's color-coded hour by hour, telling you when you can park. If it's green, you're good to go. If it's red, you can't park. If certain times are black, the spot is a loading zone during that time. During a news conference announcing the new signs last week, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said of the new grids: "All you have to do is look at what day it is. Look at what time it is. And with easy color-coding and easy graphics, you should know whether or not you can be there."