Traffic over the years has steadily increased from a somewhat normal amount of traffic to an egregious amount of traffic in Los Banos, and it’s not getting any better.
As the population grows, so does the traffic unfortunately. This was always a problem as Los Banos has grown from a small town, to a small city, to an actual city-like area. This wouldn’t be an issue if it also didn’t increase traffic problems around the city. Ranging from non-fatal to fatal, a massive amount of traffic in one place can make the town feel more compact, basically turning it into the new L.A.
Los Banos is a pass-through town, meaning most people are coming from one side of the town to exit the town on the other side. It isn’t precise how many people actually pass through Los Banos, but at least 35,000 – 38,500 vehicles pass through Los Banos on a daily basis. More people getting their driver’s licenses doesn’t help the problem, just increases it, but of course, getting a driver’s license is an important part of life if you ever want to get somewhere. The busiest time of the day is usually late afternoon, around 4:00-7:00 P.M. The quietest time on the road is early morning when the sun is rising.
You hear many people say, “Be courteous on the road” and stuff like that, but how come as soon as you get on the road, people are anything but courteous? Obviously, not everybody is courteous on the road, but for some unknown reason, there seems to have been an increase in non-courteous drivers recently. It’s not that difficult to be a little courteous for other drivers. Even just signaling when people plan to turn, it’s easy and it’s courtesy for other drivers behind you. But everything is just an option nowadays. The state does not enforce these traffic rules, so why should we follow them correctly?
In California alone, according to GJEL Accident Attorneys website, an average of 251,000 people are injured or killed in a car accident. That is a massive amount of people. In 2022, there were 39,221 car crashes and in 2021, there were 39,785. Despite the small decrease, there were still many car crashes throughout the years. Poorly maintained roads may be the cause of these car accidents as poorly maintained roads could be considered a distraction while driving. Of course, there is also the problem of “road rage.” Many drivers can get a tad too angry on the road and it affects their ability to drive properly because they mostly just want to get off the roads and get home without having to deal with other drivers on the road. Has there possibly been an increase in road rage around the US and that is affecting the traffic and causing more accidents?
Closing this article, as the human race grows, sometimes steadily and sometimes quickly, eventually, those newborns will want to drive, increasing the rate of drivers and hopefully not increasing the rate of accidents on the freeway. Again, there are rules of the road for a reason: to keep you and others safe while on the road. Let’s just hope as they grow older and start learning how to drive that they follow the simple rules of the road to keep themselves and other drivers safe.
