People who laugh at Oregonians and snow should see Californians when it rains. Pure comedy gold. They can barely drive in it. And they certainly can't be out in it. Give me a little rain down there, that's when I'll go out and about because everything is empty.
Not really sure what you're talking about, to be honest. Traffic is just as bad when its wet. Nobody lacks confidence driving in rain here. In fact, that's kind of a problem--people should slow down and be more cautious, due to the slick road conditions, but not many people do.
I'm in California 3-4 times a year to see it. Even our family/friends living down there admit as much. I've never heard so many "we can't go out, it's raining" in my life. I've never seen Disney more dead than during a light drizzle. I asked an employee why it was so light - the "rain" (it was between a mist and drizzle) kept people away. And the few people there were in ponchos.
Yeah, people here can't drive in the rain. Plus the roads are not built for rain, lots of hydroplaning.
Perhaps it keeps tourists away from tourist destinations. I've lived in the Bay Area pretty much all my life (with occasional time spent in San Diego and Seattle) and I've never experienced lack of crowds on rainy days or rainy nights. Traffic is just as jammed as ever. I wish I experienced an "emptying out" during rain, but I definitely don't.
Hmm, if that's actually representative, it sounds like an LA thing, not a California thing. As I said, the Bay Area definitely doesn't get less crowded in public when it rains--talking about traffic, bars, restaurants, etc.
well the bay area has shitty weather anyway, so they're used it it. We're used to months of sunshine in a row, rain just makes us shook.
It actually doesn't rain much in the Bay Area. This winter was unusually wet, which was helpful for keeping the state out of drought. The Bay Area gets sun pretty much nonstop from middle of March through the middle of September. The fall and winter alternates cloudy/windy with sunny.
you've apparently lived there long enough to identify fog as sunlight..at least in the city..not talking the east bay unless global warming has changed things since the 70s
February 2015.... NorCal hadn't seen rain in 40+ days. We drove from Alameda to LA. Can't remember the particular highway (it was from South Bay Area to take us back towards he 5, so we were still in the Bay Area), but traffic was backed up and going at 25 mph. Even the traffic reports on the radio said traffic was delayed due to the "heavy rains" (which was an average downfall). It wasn't a knock on Cali. The traffic is a knock. Everybody's climate is better equipped for various types of weather. In SoCal, the occasionally cancel school for rain and/or hail (sometimes there are flash floods). Maybe you don't notice the impact of rain because you're used to it (and the chaos of Cali traffic).
San Francisco has its own microclimate. It's foggy/cloudy a lot, but it's actually a very small part of the Bay Area, even if the most recognizable part. Most of the Bay Area is made up of the North Bay, South Bay, East Bay and Peninsula. None of those places share San Francisco's weather.
I didn't take it as a knock, just incorrect, in my experience. As I said, I wish you were right--I'd love to have the streets or civic centers to myself when it's wet. Everywhere is still as jammed as ever. And I definitely haven't experienced any of those huge highway slowdowns unless there's been a crash or a tree has been blown over and needs to be cleared. The traffic is definitely a negative to living here, though.
I understand. But I'm talking about my personal experiences of it drizzling when I've been there, and it's literally like the sky is falling.
I guess my few encounters are complete rarities. Never said anything about "civic centers" though. Those are more likely packed in the rain, the sidewalks clearer. I just started typing "Californians can" (no ', no t) and the first option was "Californians can't drive in the rain. That means a helluva lotta people have googled that. And that likely means a helluva lotta Californians googled it themselves. Where there's smoke, there's fire. Where there's rain, there's a waterfall.
A stereotype like that can be based on a lot of possible things, though. As I said, a big problem here is that people don't slow down when its wet, which creates a lot of spin-outs and accidents. You could certainly make a case that Californians are bad at driving in the rain--I already did several posts back. I'm just saying that people are out and about just as much; I don't experience the unwillingness to drive in the rain nor the "crawling along"--quite the opposite, unfortunately.
