WHY L.A. traffic sucks #7: Pesky annoying quirks: Accident clean-ups

WHY L.A. TRAFFIC SUCKS #7: PESKY, ANNOYING LITTLE QUIRKS THAT CREATE TRAFFIC JAMS: Accident clean-ups

An accident, any accident, especially on a freeway, is a guaranty of a major bottleneck backed-up traffic jam gridlock FOR HOURS AND HOURS ON END AD INFINITUM AD ADSURDUM. It does not matter WHAT happens, it does not matter WHERE it happens, it does not matter WHEN it happens, IF it happens, you're in for a BIG dose of the proverbial sign before construction areas on freeways anywhere "EXPECT DELAYS," MAJOR delays, SIGNIFICANT delays, INFURIATING delays. Delays as in "What the &#^$% happened?!?", delays as in "This can't be happening to me! I need to get there in 30 minutes!!", delays as in "How can this be possible?"

Yes, we all know it: accidents happen, and sometimes they are serious accidents. We think an accident is something that happens to other people, but it could happen to any of us, anytime. We hope (and some pray) it doesn't happen to us. We all understand and sympathize with the victims of ANY accident, however minor it may be. In ANY accident, they--the victims--should come first, they should be taken care of first. NO question about it, NO doubt about about it. NO ONE (I hope!) is arguing that. But (and here's the big "but"), at the same time, you can't paralize a whole city or whole sections of a city because something happened to one or two people. LIFE GOES ON.

One time I was riding in a Red Rapid bus going east on Wilshire from Santa Monica. I boarded the bus on the corner of Wilshire and Bundy. By the time we got to Barrington on Wilshire, the jam had started. It took that bus ALMOST TWO HOURS (believe it or not!!) to get from the corner of Wilshire and Barrington to the corner of Wilshire and Westwood, my final destination (a mile? half a mile? I'm not very good with distances). NO ONE had ANY idea what was going on and WHY there was such an unbelievable bottleneck backed-up traffic jam gridlock before the 405. It would have been better to get off the bus and just walk. But under the self-deceiving perception that "it'll clear up any minute! We are advancing," everyone (myself included) decided to stay on the bus (well, not that the driver is about to let you get off just about anywhere you want ANYWAY!). Before we knew it, we had lost TWO HOURS OF OUR DAY, and we didn't even understand WHY. I found out later that afternoon, around 5:00pm, from someone I talked to that there had been an "accident on the 405 involving a fatality." This "accident on the 405 involving a fatality" created THE MOTHER OF ALL BOTTLENECK BACKED-UP TRAFFIC JAM GRIDLOCKS for HOURS!!!!

HOW is it possible that ONE accident--however serious--can affect the lives of SO MANY people?!? Hundreds (if not at least a thousand) people must have been affected by that incredible jam. People die everyday--in accidents, on hospital beds, in Iraq. But does that mean that the whole world must stop spinning?

Has anybody heard, read or seen on TV what happened in Galveston and Houston, Texas before hurricane "Rita" hit last year? That was probably the REAL MOTHER OF ALL BOTTLENECK BACKED-UP TRAFFIC JAM GRIDLOCKS in ALL directions of all time!! [See The Texas Traffic Nightmare: No Simple Solution] A major evacuation fiasco (supposedly they now have contigency plans should anything like that ocurr ever again). Can you imagine what would happen in L.A. if there were an earthquake with MANY aftershocks and everybody were trying to flee the city in a panic? Can you imagine the same scenario with an approaching tsunami? Do they have plans to evacuate Malibu, Santa Monica, Venice and Marina del Rey in a hurry? HOW?!? I-10 is JAMMED every morning and every afternoon. If one accident involving a fatality creates a MAJOR BOTTLENECK BACKED-UP TRAFFIC JAM GRIDLOCK for HOURS what does that tell you about the city's (or cities') "preparedness" and/or capacity to respond in case of a major disaster or an impending one? People in L.A. do love living on the edge!! I can say that much for sure!

SOLUTION #7: WHAT CAN BE DONE TO FIX IT?

A SPECIAL TASK FORCE: A special task force should be created for the WHOLE of L.A. area to mobilize QUICKLY, clean up the accident--ANY ACCIDENT ANYTIME ANYWHERE--and get traffic moving as soon as possible. This task force must include as many police officers ON MOTORCYCLES as possible in order to get around traffic and get to the scene as QUICKLY as possible AND get traffic moving in ALL AND EVERY POSSIBLE WAY AND DIRECTION BEFORE A MAJOR BOTTLENECK BACKED-UP TRAFFIC JAM GRIDLOCK IS CREATED. What happend around the intersection of the 405 and Wilshire that day (I wish I could remember the date it happended!) CANNOT be allowed to happen. The police response team on motorcycles should be a quick response team, and should have a "Swat team"-like response and command: they rush to the scene and take over.

Once the response team has reached the accident site and victims have been evacuated, freeway shoulders--under the direction and guidence of police officers on motorcycles--should be allowed to become LANES to get traffic moving and out of the way as soon as possible. Traffic should be re-directed in whatever direction is necessary. If traffic in a two-way four-lane street in one direction can be redirected for that street to become a ONE-WAY FOUR-LANE street for a stretch of it until the jam is cleared, SO BE IT, IT MUST BE DONE. EVERYTHING AND ANYTHING NECESSARY TO GET TRAFFIC MOVING AND OUT OF THE WAY MUST BE DONE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. NO accident should EVER be allowed to become a MAJOR BOTTLENECK BACKED-UP TRAFFIC JAM GRIDLOCK FOR HOURS FOR ANY REASON.

ELECTRONIC DISPLAY BOARDS: I was driving North on I-45 from Galveston, TX towards Houston around 11:00pm one time when I noticed a huge electronic display board on my right that said "traffic stopped ahead on I-45 at Lockwood." I wasn't sure what to make of it but it caught my attention, and sure enough, up ahead traffic was already slowing down or exiting the freeway. You won't believe the illegal maneuvers a lot of people (myself included! mea colpa!) did to exit the freeway (going against traffic in an entrance ramp) in order to by-pass that accident, get back on the freeway and keep going! That electronic display board, BY INFORMING US what was happening ahead, saved us from a major delay stuck in traffic due to an accident on a freeway. There are ALREADY some such boards installed around freeways in L.A. But MORE, MANY, MANY, MANY MORE are necessary EVERYWHERE to keep drivers INFORMED, WELL-INFORMED, of what to expect ahead, and if possible, to exit the freeway early enough to AVOID contributing to creating a jam.

This is the kind of efficiency and competence that people should expect from their politicians, beaurocrats and city workers. If they are not getting it, what are they paying taxes for? They are not getting their money's worth. Boot them out of office. I CANNOT, I simply cannot believe the complencency of politicians, beaurocrats and city workers and the PASSIVITY of citizens. People, like sheep, wait in line for HOURS everywhere (from Disney World to you-name-it) and sit in traffic FOR HOURS everywhere in America. NO ONE says anything. NO ONE COMPLAINS (about the things that REALLY matter). EVERYBODY just puts up with it as something INEVITABLE, as something that NOTHING can be done about, as something that NO ONE can do ANYTHING about. IT'S UNBELIEVABLE!! How many "Katrinas" will it take to wake everybody up from their political slumber, their desensitized-by-TV stupor, their self-induced "drug state" of passivity?!? They say that after "Katrina," an earthquake in L.A. or in San F. may be the next major disaster. If the city CANNOT handle ONE accident with ONE fatality, do you think they are prepared to handle a disaster of "Hurricane Katrina" proportions? Do you think they are prepared to handle an evacuation of "Hurricane Rita" proportions? Do you think they are prepared to handle ANYTHING? Keep trusting REACTIVE rather than PROACTIVE governments. Keep living in denial. Keep living on the edge. It's YOUR life, Angelenos!!

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