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Southern California freeways facts for kids

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SocalfreewaysystemWIKI
Interstate and State Highway System of Southern California
LA-IE Freeway System
Metropolitan Los Angeles Freeway System and Metropolitan Inland Empire

A vast network of interconnected freeways in the megaregion of Southern California serves a population of over 23 million people. The Master Plan of Metropolitan Los Angeles Freeways was adopted by the Regional Planning Commission in 1947 and construction began in the early 1950s. The plan hit opposition and funding limitations in the 1970s, and by 2004, only some 61% of the original planned network had been completed.

History

Origins

Southern California's romance with the automobile owes in large part to resentment of the Southern Pacific Railroad's tight control over the region's commerce in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. During his successful campaign for governor in 1910, anti-Southern Pacific candidate Hiram Johnson traveled the state by car, which was no small feat at that time. In the minds of Southlanders, this associated the automobile with clean, progressive government, in stark contrast to the railroads' control over the corrupt governments of the Midwest and Northeast. While the Southern Pacific-owned Pacific Electric Railway's famous Red Car streetcar lines were the axis of urbanization in Los Angeles during its period of spectacular growth in the 1910s and 1920s, they were unprofitable and increasingly unattractive compared to automobiles. As cars became cheaper and began to fill the region's roads in the 1920s, Pacific Electric lost ridership. Traffic congestion soon threatened to choke off the region's development altogether. At the same time, a number of influential urban planners were advocating the construction of a network of what one widely read book dubbed "Magic Motorways", as the backbone of suburban development. These "greenbelt" advocates called for decentralized, automobile-oriented development as a means of remedying both urban overcrowding and declining rates of home ownership.

Traffic congestion was of such great concern by the late 1930s in the Los Angeles metropolitan area that the influential Automobile Club of Southern California engineered an elaborate plan to create an elevated freeway-type "Motorway System," a key aspect of which was the dismantling of the streetcar lines, to be replaced with buses that could run on both local streets and on the new express roads. In the late 1930s, when the freeway system was originally planned locally by Los Angeles city planners, they had intended for light rail tracks to have been installed in the center margin of each freeway (which would presumably have carried Pacific Electric Railway red cars), but this plan was never fully implemented.

Planning and construction

During World War II, transportation bottlenecks on Southern California roads and railways convinced many that if Southern California was to accommodate a large population, it needed a completely new transportation system. The city of Los Angeles favored an upgraded rail transit system focused on its central city. However, the success of the Arroyo Seco Parkway, built between Los Angeles and Pasadena in 1940, convinced many that a freeway system could solve the region's transportation problems. Leaders of surrounding cities, such as Whittier, South Gate, Long Beach, and Pasadena, accordingly called for a web of freeways to connect the whole region, rather than funneling their residents out of their own downtowns and into that of Los Angeles. Pro-freeway sentiments prevailed, and by 1947, a new comprehensive freeway plan for Los Angeles (based largely on the original locally planned 1930s system, but without the light rail tracks in the median strips of the freeways) had been drawn up by the California Department of Public Works (now Caltrans). San Diego soon followed suit, and by the early 1950s, construction had begun on much of the region's freeway system.

Proposed/future freeways

Caltrans or local transportation agencies have identified the following priority freeway projects:

  • A toll road that will go through a tunnel in the Santa Ana Mountains from Irvine to Corona.
  • Upgrading State Route 210 to Interstate standards and renumbering the route Interstate 210.
  • A new freeway, the Mid County Parkway, from Interstate 215 in Perris to State Route 79 in San Jacinto.
  • An extension for Interstate 710, the Long Beach Freeway, to its originally planned terminus at Interstate 210, the Foothill Freeway, in Pasadena, via a tunnel underneath the city of South Pasadena or some other means. Caltrans, however, cancelled the project in November 2018.
  • An extension to the State Route 241 toll road to meet Interstate 5 in or near San Clemente.
  • Upgrading State Route 71, the Chino Valley Freeway, to a full controlled-access freeway north of State Route 60, the Pomona Freeway, to Interstate 10, the San Bernardino Freeway, in Pomona.
  • Upgrading State Route 55, the Costa Mesa Freeway, from south of its current freeway terminus at 19th Street in Costa Mesa to State Route 1, Pacific Coast Highway, in Newport Beach, potentially via a tunnel.
  • Construction of the High Desert Corridor, a freeway and expressway between State Route 14, the Antelope Valley Freeway, in Palmdale and Interstate 15, the Mojave Freeway, near Victorville. It would also carry a high-speed rail line to Las Vegas, Nevada. Caltrans put the freeway on hold in 2019.
  • State Route 48 is a completely unconstructed 25.5-mile (41.03 km) freeway to connect at the current SR 14/138 junction and West Avenue E, go east running parallel with East Avenue E and East Avenue G, and terminate in Hi Vista at East Avenue G/200th Street East, at the planned SR 122 freeway.
  • State Route 122 is a completely unconstructed 61.3-mile (98.7 km) freeway, defined to run from SR 14 south of Palmdale, and proceed northeast through Hi Vista, and terminate at the current U.S. 395/SR 58 at Kramer Junction.
  • State Route 249 is a 13.5-mile (21.7 km) unconstructed route that would connect SR 2 north of La Cañada Flintridge with SR 14 south of Palmdale. Angeles Forest Highway (CR N3) follows the general alignment, but Caltrans has no plans to take it over. However, there are plans to explore the building of this route between Palmdale and Los Angeles by tunneling through the mountains.
  • A toll road that would run from SR 126 to SR 118 in Simi Valley through the Santa Susana Mountains (proposed in August 1990). The only north–south highways that connect SR 126 with SR 118 are I-5 and SR 23. Motorists on SR 126 can use this route to reach Simi Valley without having to use Interstate 5 via Newhall Pass to SR 118 or SR 23 to Moorpark and vice versa. A good traversable route would be Tapo Canyon Road, Windmill Canyon Road, and Pico Canyon Road, but Caltrans has no plans to take it over.

Naming

Freeway names

Southern California residents idiomatically refer to freeways with the definite article, as "the [freeway number]", e.g. "the 5" or "the 10". This use of the article differs from other American dialects, including that of Northern California, but is the same as in the UK (e.g. "Take the M1 to the M25") and other European countries (e.g. "die A1" in German). In addition, sections of the southern California freeway system are often referred to by names rather than by the official numbers. For example, the names Santa Monica and San Bernardino are used for segments of the Interstate 10 even though overhead freeway signs installed at interchanges since the 1990s don't display these names, using instead the highway number, direction, and control city. A freeway "name" may refer to portions of two or more differently numbered routes; for example, the Ventura Freeway consists of portions of U.S. Route 101 and State Route 134, and the San Diego Freeway consists of portions of Interstate 5 and the full length of Interstate 405.

When Southern California freeways were built in the 1940s and early 1950s, local common usage was primarily the freeway name preceded by the definite article. It took several decades for Southern California locals to start to also commonly refer to the freeways with the numerical designations, but the usage of the definite article persisted. For example, the San Gabriel River Freeway evolved into "the 605 Freeway" and then shortened to "the 605".

Named interchanges

Other named features

  • Downtown Slot: where Highway 101 passes through a trench in downtown Los Angeles.
  • South Bay Curve: where Interstate 405 bends from north–south to east–west in Torrance
  • Sepulveda Pass: Interstate 405 just south of U.S. Route 101 near the J. Paul Getty Museum.
  • Cahuenga Pass: the Hollywood Freeway just south of the interchange with the Ventura Freeway
  • Figueroa Street Tunnels: the northbound lanes of the Pasadena Freeway between the Four Level Interchange and the interchange with the Golden State Freeway
  • Glendora Curve: the transition of the northbound 57 Orange Freeway to the westbound 210 Foothill Freeway; or the eastbound 210 transition to the southbound 57. Formerly part of Interstate 210 before the completion of the newer section of the Foothill Freeway in 2003.

Comparisons and firsts

  • First freeway in California (Arroyo Seco Parkway linking Pasadena and Los Angeles)
  • First stack interchange (Four Level Interchange in downtown Los Angeles)
  • First grade-separated HOV lanes
  • First fully automated tollway system (91 Express Lanes in northern Orange County)

The Southern California area has fewer lane-miles per capita than most large metropolitan areas in the United States, ranking 31st of the top 39. As of 1999, Greater Los Angeles had 0.419 lane-miles per 1,000 people, only slightly more than Greater New York City and fewer than Greater Boston, the Washington Metropolitan Area and the San Francisco Bay Area. (American metros average .613 lane-miles per thousand.) San Diego ranked 17th in the same study, with 0.659 lane-miles per thousand, and the Inland Empire ranked 21st, with 0.626.

Limited-access roads not maintained by the state

The following limited-access roads are not maintained by the state:

  • Colorado Street, former routing of State Route 134, from Interstate 5 to San Fernando Road just west of Glendale
  • Colorado Freeway, former routing of State Route 134, from Colorado Blvd in Eagle Rock to the Ventura Freeway
  • Harbor Scenic Drive from Interstate 710 at Ocean Boulevard to RMS Queen Mary
  • Jamboree Road in Irvine, a non-tolled extension of State Route 261 from Walnut Avenue near Interstate 5 to Barranca Parkway
  • Oak Grove Drive in Pasadena, former routing of the Foothill Freeway
  • Shoreline Drive in Long Beach, the downtown exit from southbound Interstate 710 to Queens Way
  • La Cienega Boulevard in the Baldwin Hills, originally intended to be part of the discontinued Laurel Canyon Freeway
  • Los Patrones Parkway in Las Flores, a non-tolled extension of State Route 241 from Oso Parkway to Cow Camp Road

List of freeways

Major freeways leading into and out of Southern California

San Diego area

Controlled access routes not maintained by the state

  • Kearny Villa Road near Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, former routing of U.S. Route 395
  • Pacific Highway near San Diego International Airport (Lindbergh Field), former routing of U.S. Route 101
  • Friars Road in Mission Valley near the site of the former San Diego Stadium

Inland Empire Metropolitan Area

(Includes San Bernardino and Riverside Counties)

Greater Los Angeles

(includes Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura Counties)

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