WHY L.A. traffic sucks #5: Pesky annoying quirks: NO "left only" lanes

"WHY L.A. TRAFFIC SUCKS #5: PESKY, ANNOYING LITTLE QUIRKS THAT SLOW DOWN TRAFFIC: NO "left turn only" lanes

Try any of the corners of Crescent Heights from Melrose to San Vicente and feel like flying into "road rage" as you're stuck forever behind someone turning left while all the smart ones whizz by on your right! (this problem is closely tied to the previous post: Unprotected Lefts and to the following issue to be posted tomorrow: "WHY L.A. TRAFFIC SUCKS #6: PESKY, ANNOYING LITTLE QUIRKS THAT SLOW DOWN TRAFFIC: Street parking")

The conspicuous absence of a north-south freeway right down the middle of the West Side makes ANY street connecting Sunset to I-10 a prospective thoroughfare at peak hours. Crescent Heights is the ALTERNATE LA CIENEGA, the only way sometimes to make it south from West Hollywood to I-10 without flying into "road rage." But Crescent Heights can be difficult to navigate with this trident of UNPROTECTED LEFTS, NO LEFT ONLY LANES AND STREET PARKING staring you in the face (NOT to mention "DIPS"! See the post three days from now: "WHY L.A. TRAFFIC SUCKS #8: PESKY, ANNOYING LITTLE QUIRKS THAT SLOW DOWN TRAFFIC: Dips and Potholes.")

From Pico to I-10, Crescent Heights is riddled with stop signs. Fine. That's perfectly understandable since you are going through a residential area and a school zone in that part of it. But from Santa Monica to Pico, Crescent Heights can be a little pain you-know-where because of these three factors, ALL OF WHICH are bad urban planning in the midst of explosive urban growth. This city is past the "urban explotion" point of NO return and is not going back to what it was 60 years ago anytime soon. Urban planners might as well deal with it and prepare Crescent Heights to be the ALTERNATE LA CIENEGA that it ALREADY is. The same must be true of any other north-south street that requires it. La Cienega (forget Fairfax!! You'd have to be insane to take Fairfax!) is NOT ENOUGH to carry traffic from mid-West Side Sunset to I-10 and points beyond.

SOLUTION #5: WHAT CAN BE DONE TO FIX IT?

"LEFT ONLY" LANES NEED TO BE PUT IN ANYWHERE AND EVERYWHERE THEY ARE REQUIRED TO KEEP TRAFFIC FLOWING IN THE L.A. AREA.
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