This week my job took me to Baton Rouge, LA. I had never been to this city before. A few observations:
This city is not made for walking. In many places there are no sidewalks, no crosswalks, and narrow streets. The first night I was there, I made the mistake of trying to walk from my hotel to a restaurant down the street. I've never had such a hard time getting somewhere on foot!
There is nowhere to rent a bicycle (I confirmed this with the hotel concierge). And from what I can tell, not many places where you could actually ride one anyway.
The buses have crappy hours and the schedules are indecipherable. Google Maps has no data on public transit in this city, and the city transit website has no route planning tool. All you get are PDF maps of the bus routes that don't show where the stops are. And the stops listed are not named after landmarks or streets that can be easily looked up. You couldn't
design something more unusable!
So if you want to get around, what are you left with? Driving. And my god do people drive here. From dawn till dusk, every major street is lined with bumper-to-bumper traffic. It's a total clusterfuck. Trucks, cars, and SUVs as far as the eye can see, slowed down by the inevitable construction and frequent accidents.
I have seen one bicyclist here, and this smart fellow was pedaling comfortably past me as I crawled along in a miles-long line of idling metal boxes. And so, ladies and gentlemen, I hereby nominate Baton Rouge for the coveted and prestigious Most Antimustachian City Award:
