L.A. We’re number one!
1. Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA
“Los Angeles was very clearly the least drivable city studied. L.A. has the nation’s worst mobility; the highest travel time index (1.9), the highest annual delay per peak road traveler (136 hours), and the highest roadway congestion index”
2. San Francisco, CA
3. Chicago, IL
4. Denver, CO
5. Boston, MA
6. Oakland, CA
7. Detroit, MI
8. New York, NY
9. Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, WA
10. Washington, D.C
Why is L.A. traffic so evil? Well, welcome to Hell and take a look at the L.A. freeway traffic map. Red dots indicate stopped traffic. Yellow dots mean very slow traffic. Green is anything over 35 mph, not exactly zipping along, is it? L.A. has, by my quick count, at least twenty freeways, any of which can be jammed for no apparent reason most any time including 4 am Sunday morning.
And if you’ve been wondering how interstates get their numbers…
- One- or two-digit even- numbered Interstates are always east-west routes. The numbers increase from south (I-10) to north (I-94).
- One- or two-digit odd-numbered Interstates are always north-south routes. Numbers increase from the West Coast (I-5) to the East Coast (I-95).
- Interstate highways with three-digit numbers connect to other major highways.
- If the first of the three digits is an even number, the highway usually connects to another Interstate at both ends – often in a circular “beltway” or loop.
- If the first of the three digits is an odd number, the highway is usually a “spur” route that connects with an Interstate at only one end, sometimes going into a city center.
- If the first of the three digits is an even number, the highway usually connects to another Interstate at both ends – often in a circular “beltway” or loop.
Also the last two numbers of a three digit interstate indicate which interstate it branches splits off. For example, here in L.A., the 605 loops around the 5 while the 710 splits off the 10. Got all this? We’ll have a test next week…
To further add to the fun, freeways in L.A. usually have names, and the names do not always correspond to the numbers. The Ventura Freeway is Hwy 101, then Hwy 134. Wheee.