Being at the Hollywood Bowl to see a show is a magical experience. Getting there? Not so much, thanks to streets that get so clogged with traffic that it sometimes feels like every single one of the 17,000 people filling the storied venue to capacity are behind the wheel of their own car inching slowly up Highland Avenue. Years ago, in an effort to make sure we got to the Bowl on time — reliably, every time — with a minimum amount of stress, my wife and I abandoned the idea of driving ourselves and parking on-site (a logistical nightmare) or taking one of the several shuttle buses from afar (an extra step that some swear by but requires the patience of a saint), in favor of taking a rideshare, building in an extra hour and wearing comfortable shoes.
Once the traffic inching up Highland Boulevard toward the Bowl slowed from a crawl to a near-complete standstill — which it absolutely always did with at least a quarter mile left to go — we’d disembark and make the rest of the way on foot. On the return, we’d try to beat the congestion and demand by hoofing it all the way down to Hollywood Boulevard before hailing a ride home. Neither of us particularly relished adding a mile-long walk to the end of the night, but the trade-off was avoiding the worst of the inevitable rideshare chaos.
Last time we went, though, things were different. Instead of heading up Highland and straight into the inevitable sea of Bowl-bound traffic, our driver took a circuitous route through th.
