[Reader comment] "SPEED CORRIDORS: North-South": worst ideas ever.

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "SPEED CORRIDORS: North-South":

worst ideas ever.

Posted by Anonymous to L.A. traffic sucks: Let's fix it! at 11:12 PM

nando replies:

Thanks for the comment and for reading the blog.

With such an attitude, though, I very much doubt that any traffic problem in L.A., or in any other complex metro area, will ever be solved.

ANY ideas, even the "worst ideas ever," are better than none. And I've said it before and I'll say it again, this unbelievably complex and multi-faceted problem of traffic will never be solved unless a mosaic of solutions is TRIED, at least TRIED, to see what works and what doesn't. We'll never know if it will work unless we try. No one solution will work. There is no panacea to the traffic problem. Multiple ideas in a well-orchestrated attempt will need to be tried.

Sure, there is a cost in trying any idea. But who says that it has to be implemented in a large area at a high cost. It should be tried in a small area first and at the lowest possible cost. And go from there...

SPEED CORRIDORS: North-South

Following up on our last post, if we speed up traffic by creating East-West "speed corridors" on all major roads on the Westside from Sunset to Venice, what happens to North-South traffic?

Here's a better question: as things stand today, how in the world does one get fast enough from the 101 to I-10 through Hollywood or West Hollywood? How in the world does one get fast enough from the 101 to I-10 or points south without taking the 405 or going all the way downtown?

The answer lies in the "Freeway Revolts" of the 1970's. You can read all about it in this wikipedia entry. Here's a quote from it:

"The Freeway Revolts (sometimes expressway revolts) refer to a phenomenon encountered in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s, where planned freeway construction in many U.S. cities was halted due to widespread public opposition; especially of those whose neighborhoods would be disrupted or displaced by the proposed freeways. Such 'revolts' occurred in many U.S. cities, such as Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Portland, Seattle, Washington DC, Cleveland, and Baltimore. In many cities, one can find unused highways, abruptly-terminating freeway alignments, and short stretches of freeway in the middle of nowhere, all of which are evidence of larger projects which were mothballed."

The whole list of all the cancelled or unfinished projects is all there:

-"The Laurel Canyon Freeway (CA/SR-170) would have sliced across western Hollywood, the Mid-City West area, and western Inglewood en route to its terminus at the San Diego Freeway (I-405) near Los Angeles International Airport. It was scrapped in the face of community opposition from these districts and its namesake Laurel Canyon. Only the portion traversing the Baldwin Hills was finished, later being designated as La Cienega Boulevard.
-"The Beverly Hills Freeway (CA/SR-2) would have run from the Hollywood Freeway (US-101) in southern Hollywood to the San Diego Freeway (I-405) in Westwood along the alignment of Melrose Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard. It went through several proposed iterations--including a cut-and-cover tunnel--before its mid-1970s abandonment in the face of opposition from residents of Beverly Hills, the Fairfax District, and Hancock Park.
-"The Slauson Freeway (CA/SR-90), originally known as the Richard M. Nixon Freeway and intended to run across southern Los Angeles and northern Orange counties between the Pacific Coast Highway (CA/SR-1) and Riverside (CA/SR-91), was truncated as a result of opposition to its construction through South Central Los Angeles. The only portions completed to freeway level are the short Marina Freeway that runs between Marina del Rey and southern Culver City and the Richard M. Nixon Parkway in Yorba Linda.
-"The Glendale Freeway (CA/SR-2) terminates roughly 1.5 miles northeast of its intended terminus at the Hollywood Freeway (US-101), due to opposition from residents of Silver Lake.
-"The Pacific Coast Freeway (CA/SR-1) would have upgraded the existing Pacific Coast Highway to freeway standards. Opposition by residents of Malibu, Santa Monica, and the coastal cities of the South Bay region led to the project's abandonment. One segment, between Oxnard and the Point Mugu Naval Air Station, was built in the 1960s before the project was abandoned.
-"The Redondo Beach Freeway (CA/SR-91) would have linked the Pacific Coast Freeway in Redondo Beach or the San Diego Freeway (I-405) in Torrance to the Long Beach Freeway (I-710). Opposition by Redondo Beach and Torrance led to its truncation to its current terminus at the Harbor Freeway (I-110) in Gardena; the California legislature subsequently renamed it the Gardena Freeway.
-"The Century Freeway (I-105), itself the subject of an unsuccessful freeway revolt in Hawthorne, South Central Los Angeles, Lynwood, and Downey that lasted nearly two decades, was truncated at the San Gabriel River Freeway (I-605) instead of its intended terminus at the Santa Ana Freeway (I-5) due to opposition from the city of Norwalk. One of the compromises allowing the freeway to be built caused the inclusion of a mass transit line in the freeway median. This is the LACMTA Green Line, which opened with the freeway in 1995.
-"The Long Beach Freeway (I-710) was originally intended to go from the port complex all the way north to Pasadena, linking up with the Ventura and Foothill Freeways (SR-134 & I-210), completing a bypass of Downtown Los Angeles to the east. The freeway was completed to just past I-10 in Alhambra, and a half-mile stub was built in Pasadena (still unsigned, but officially SR-710). Opposition came from the small city of South Pasadena which would have been cut in half, eradicating its small but lively downtown. A six mile gap currently exists and Caltrans is still attempting to build some sort of link, the latest idea of which has been a pair of tunnels.
"Opposition to the building of the 710 extension through South Pasadena has, for some 30 years, resulted in the suspension of plans to build an extension from the 210 freeway through West Pasadena and South Pasadena. The ramps exist and a stub is in place at California Avenue, but much of the land taken for the freeway has been resold by CalTrans to private parties. In 2006, the idea of completing the freeway by means of an underground tunnel was first proposed. This idea is currently under a funded study by the LACMTA.
"A proposed rehabilitation and widening of the aged Long Beach Freeway (I-710) between the Pomona (CA/SR-60) and San Diego (I-405) freeways, which would have demolished over 2000 residences in five cities and one unincorporated area, created such outrage that Caltrans and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) abandoned it within days of its unveiling in 2004. Caltrans and MTA have issued a new plan that would use MTA-owned utility right-of-way along the Los Angeles River and require the taking of fewer than ten residences.
-"During the 1980s, Caltrans proposed extending the Orange Freeway (CA/SR-57) from its terminus at the "Orange Crush" interchange to the San Diego Freeway (I-405) by means of an elevated alignment along the bed of the Santa Ana River. Pressure from environmental groups led Caltrans and the Orange County Transportation Authority to abandon the plan."

It may have been fashionable activism in the 1970's, but you can see how L.A. is now paying the price for these cancellations and unfinished projects. It may have been the idealistic thing to do back in the environmentalist movement mindset of the 70's, but it wasn't exactly the best or the most forward-looking thing to do.

The answer to the above questions is, of course, that you can't.

-"The Laurel Canyon Freeway (CA/SR-170) and The Beverly Hills Freeway (CA/SR-2) would have been the answer to the questions above. As it is, they were scrapped, and L.A. now has a pretty mess on its hands.

So what do you do now?

If you create "speed corridors" on all major roads going East-West, North-South traffic is going to get pretty jammed without these two cancelled freeways.

The only possible answer is to build overpasses and pedestrian skywalks on Centinella, Sawtelle, Sepulveda Blvd., Westwood Blvd., Santa Monica Blvd. (intersection with Wilshire Blvd.), La Cienega Blvd., Crescent Heights Blvd., at all the points of intersection with Sunset, Wilshire, Santa Monica, Olympic, Pico and Venice Blvds. to keep traffic moving North-South.

See my posts: WHY L.A. traffic sucks: OPEN DISCUSSION #3 and WHY L.A. traffic sucks: Open Discussion #6: Pedestrian Under/Overpasses - for more on this issue.

Short of this, you can
-dream of a subway or a monorail within 20 years;
-you can move to a less congested city;
-or, if you work permits it, you can just stay at home and telecommute, work from home, and not go anywhere except when traffic dies down after 9:00pm at night.

You can also push for the transformation of the city into a more walkable, bikeable, scooterable, motorcycleable, publictransportable city.

Or move to El Segundo! The city of El Segundo seems to be that kind of a place, nudged there between a major international airport (LAX) and a refinery (Chevron), it seems to be the kind of community where you won't have to drive much to get around. And if you do, there's hardly any traffic. It's probably L.A.'s best kept secret. They even have a FREE trolley Mon-Fri to bring business people from the Sepulveda business area to downtown El Segundo for lunch. Like in the rest of L.A., it's best if you have a car, but if you don't, MTA buses take you to the Green Line, which can then take you to other connecting points. Not advisable if you're pressed for time, but not bad, either.

Or you can just do this...

Los Angeles [Swiss846]



Live with it! I guess...
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SPEED CORRIDORS: East-West

Most of the panel discussion at the L.A. Press Club focused on "mobility," "capacity" and "flow" on the freeways in L.A. I believe that this is a misplaced and misguided emphasis. We have to get away from this idea that the only way to increase mobility and traffic flow in the L.A. area is by increasing flow on the freeways. The idea that the only way to increase mobility is by increasing flow on the freeways is a totally misguided idea. DO NOT believe it.

Any solution to the congestion in L.A., especially on the Westside, will have to include increasing traffic flow on the streets as well, as an alternative to the freeways.

The only way to achieve increasing traffic flow on the streets is by creating temporary SPEED CORRIDORS.

The only way to create SPEED CORRIDORS is by keeping the lights GREEN on ALL major roads going east-west from Sunset to Venice (Sunset Blvd., Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica Blvd., Olympic, Pico, Venice Blvd.) for at least 5 minutes or longer at certain intervals from 7:00am to 9:00am in the morning going east to west, and from 4:00pm to 7:00om in the evening going from west to east. This would create unbelievable flow that would get most cars and buses in and out of the Westside (west of he 405) every morning and evening at a very fast rate.

It is this mass migration of workers going east to west in the morning and west to east in the evenings what creates unbelievable congestion on I-10 and all major roads east-west from Sunset to Venice.

By creating these SPEED CORRIDORS, you would be creating an alternative I-10, which cannot possibly handle such an unbelievable volume of cars without getting jammed. You would be creating an alternative to I-10 without increasing capacity on the freeway and without building another freeway.

It's a great idea. BELIEVE IN IT.

Detractors of this idea would counter: "Well, what about traffic going north-south? While the lights are green for east-west traffic, north-south traffic would be getting jammed on all those roads running north-south that cross the roads you mentioned. And what about pedestrians? They'd be stuck waiting for 5 minutes or longer for the light to change to cross the road!"

My answer is that this idea of SPEED CORRIDORS cannot be implemented without creating a few overpasses for north-south traffic and some skywalks for pedestrians (see my posts WHY L.A. traffic sucks: OPEN DISCUSSION #3 and WHY L.A. traffic sucks: Open Discussion #6: Pedestrian Under/Overpasses for more on this issue).

The idea of tolls on freeways as a solution to congestion would be not only self-defeating, tax-regressive and eventually useless, but it would also be COUNTERPRODUCTIVE: ALL those who are unwilling or unable to pay the tolls would simply spill out onto the streets and roads to avoid paying the tolls, thus creating even more congestion, congestion of unbelievable proportions on the streets of L.A. To believe that tolls are going to change behavior and keep people from driving as single drivers in one car is an illusion. Whoever said that freeways are the only way to "get there"?

Since, according to Tom Rubin, former Administrator for Public Transport in Southern California, "we" (whatever that means!) have decided NOT to increase capacity on freeways, ANY solution to the traffic congestion problem in L.A. MUST include increasing flow on streets and roads as an alternative to the freeways. There's NO question about it.

Any solution, or set of solutions, that focuses on freeway flow at the expense of street flow is part of the problem, NOT part of the solution.

ANY great and creative solution, or set of solutions, for the traffic congestion in L.A. and other metropolitan areas, will have to consider flow EVERYWHERE, NOT just on the freeways.

L.A. is like a 500-pound individual whose arteries are clogged and whose blood is not flowing like it should. This "individual" needs to slim down, start exercising and increase blood flow to ALL parts of the body.

It is that simple a solution.

Whether this "individual" will have the willpower and determination to change or continue to stumble along at the current sluggish pace, is another question.

If you were one of those "blood cells" inside this "individual", what would you say?

Would you say this?

DAMN LOS ANGELES TRAFFIC! [From: ACCDzek]



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