Pulled from audio recording:

“Informant:
Oh, and another thing—this might not count as a proverb, but in California, people always say “depending on the traffic.” If something is 20 minutes away, you’d say, “20 minutes… depending on the traffic,” because it could be 50 minutes or even an hour.

Pearson:
That’s so interesting. That’s definitely not a thing in Connecticut. Traffic was never bad enough to add more than 10 minutes to a trip. Rush hour was the only time it got rough. But otherwise, it wasn’t a big deal. The idea that a drive could be 20 minutes or an hour was super foreign to me.

Informant:
Yeah, exactly. Like, I live 10 minutes from Malibu, but I’m an hour from school. At night, it’s a 45-minute drive. But if I leave during the day, it could take an hour and a half—just depending on the traffic.“

Analysis:

To me I think this is really interesting because it goes deeper than it’s actual meaning. Personally, I never really hear people say this for a couple of reasons. Where I’m from traffic isn’t really a huge thing unlike here where everything really “depends on the traffic” literally and figuratively. Like I said I think it also has a deeper meaning. I see it more as a saying like a proverb but not quite a proverb. I would classify it as folk saying that’s used to convey the idea of having things take longer than they maybe should because of various roadblocks.

Age: 20

Date of performance: Told to me on February 13th, 2025. Something they’ve heard all their life

Language: English

Nationality: American

Occupation: Student at USC

Primary Language: English

Residence: From California, lives somewhere in the Los Angeles area