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Forget jump scares and frightening costumes: The most startling experiences in L.A. this Halloween aren’t lurking in a haunted house. No, instead it’s the weird, mundane realities like navigating L.A.’s traffic and bracing for its natural phenomena that keep us up at night. And that’s apparently true for lots of you, too: We turned to our Facebook followers to find out what everyday L.A. experiences scare you the most, and we’ve included some of our favorite responses below.
1. Merging onto the 110 from any of the ramps north of the 5.
Avenue 57, south: You’re basically making a right turn at a stop sign onto the freeway. Avenue 43, north: A blind curve behind you and only a few feet to floor it ahead of you. Merging onto one of the country’s oldest freeways just might be the most terrifying commute in town.
2. Picking someone up at LAX.
Braving the loop of traffic hell at LAX is daunting no matter the hour, but there’s one time of day that sticks out to us for maximum misery: meeting a friend on the arrivals level on a Friday night—and then enduring the drive-through line at the In-N-Out up the street.
3. Looking at Zillow.
You mean you haven’t dreamed of getting into a bidding war over a million-dollar two-bedroom fixer-upper?
4. Getting stuck at the light on La Cienega and Sunset and rolling backward.
Your car’s hill start assist will truly be tested at this busy Sunset Strip intersection, where bumper-to-bumper traffic will have you frantically alternating between the brake and gas. (Honorable mention: We once would’ve considered the intersection at the summit of Baxter Street to be L.A.’s worth hilltop traffic nightmare, but a switch to one-way streets a few years ago alleviated that.)
5. Finding out how long the wait is at Din Tai Fung.
It’s 5:30pm on a Tuesday, surely the wait won’t be that long, right? An hour and a half later: “Have you gotten the text yet? I’m hungry.”
6. Seeing nothing but red freeways on Google Maps.
Before you even see how many minutes (or hours) your commute will take, the red-turning-scarlet lines on the map let you know that you’ll be in for a world of pain.
7. The Santa Ana winds.
Fear the Four Horsemen of L.A.’s fire season: skin-ravaging dryness, frond-freeing gusts, fire-inducing conditions and red flag parking restrictions.
8. Suddenly remembering that the Big One is coming.
It’s been nearly two decades since the Northridge earthquake, a 6.7-magnitude jolt on a then-undiscovered fault line that collapsed a handful of freeways. Since then, whether it’s a small shake or a swarm of quakes, L.A.’s seismic activity occasionally reminds us all that an unprecedented earthquake is bound to hit eventually—and that other than putting together an emergency kit and screaming into a pillow, there’s not a whole lot we can do about it.
9. Strolling along the Walk of Fame.
Spider-Man and CDs and crowds, oh my!
10. Driving in the rain.
We didn’t forget how to drive just because the road’s a little wet, but, well, apparently plenty of other Angelenos did, judging by the white-knuckled speeding and lack of headlights.
11. Checking the prices at Erewhon.
We’re not sure which is scarier: That it costs $20 for a smoothie or some sea moss, or that Angelenos are willingly spending $20 on a smoothie or some sea moss. For most of us, the price tags at this high-end market might as well just say “if you’re bothering to read this then you can’t afford me.”
Thanks to our Facebook followers Michelle, Melissa, Yolanda, Gavin, Khalid, James, Sarah and Ash for the suggestions.