Los Angeles has some of the worst traffic in the country. But getting to your destination doesn’t mean your driving challenges are over. Parking lots around the Southland can be just as difficult to navigate as our freeways and surface streets. LA Times’ David Wharton took us around town to some of the worst offenders and also offered up some solutions.

Wharton detailed the struggle of navigating a complicated LA parking lot. 

“We’re always looking for signs and things to tell us what we’re supposed to do in parking lots. It’s like our driving brain just goes out the window. It’s a free for all,” he said. 

Wharton set out to find the parking lots that people go crazy about the most in LA, then he proposed solutions on how to streamline them. 

“In a lot of cases, the solutions aren’t that difficult. They may involve losing a space or two here or there to create better traffic flow. But there are ways to fix a lot of these parking lots. With the Food for Less in Westlake, the problems are frontage and friction. Most of the trouble occurs right in front of the store, where people are coming in and out and there aren’t any walkways, and there aren’t any stop signs for the cars going up and down the rows... Take out a couple spots, and put in one of those planters that can improve flow,” Wharton said. 

Additionally, the Costco in Alhambra would benefit from more pedestrian walkways to make it easier for people to park far away from the store and get inside safely, Wharton explained. And since Wharton first wrote about this in February, the Trader Joe’s in Pasadena made a change to its parking lot, making it one way in and one way out.

“When you look at a lot of these lots, they just aren’t designed with traffic flow in mind. And that’s where everything slows down. The city looks after how many spaces you’re providing in regards to the size of your store. But all the other things about a parking lot, that is on the people who own the property, whether it’s the store itself or the property owners who lease out the stores. They’re the ones who would have to fix these things,” Wharton said. 

Click the arrow above to watch the full interview.

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