I thought I was
being so smart. It was 2:20 p.m., and I needed to drive from my house
in eastern Long Beach to my friend's house on the westside of Los
Angeles. Normally I would take Ocean Avenue west along the ocean's edge
to downtown Long Beach, get on the Long Beach Freeway (Route 710) going
north for a few miles, and then transfer to the San Diego Freeway
(Route 405) which would take me up to Los Angeles' westside, for roughly
a 45 minute trip.
But I knew better! By 2:20 p.m., the enormous trucks laden with cargo vessel containers were departing the Long Beach Port by the hundreds right onto the Long Beach Freeway heading to the train depot in downtown Los Angeles, leaving almost no room for automobiles. Too often I had forgotten that and paid the price by crawling along the Long Beach Freeway to the 405. No, this time I would take surface streets in eastern Long Beach north directly to the 405.
I was so proud of myself, that is until I almost reached the on-ramp to the 405 on Lakewood Boulevard. Just as the light was changing to green as I headed north on Lakewood Boulevard, literally a block from the Freeway entrance, three enormous sanitation department vehicles heading east on Willow Avenue entered the intersection and turned left onto Lakewood Boulevard. They headed toward the Freeway on-ramp. As I and about 10 other vehicles headed to the on-ramp on Lakewood as the light turned green, we found ourselves behind these 3 sanitation vehicles. One was a dumpster but the two trailing were large vehicles with electric signs on them. All three quickly turned onto the on-ramp but immediately stopped. The two trailing vehicles' electric signs said "Ramp Closed. Detour" with flashing arrows. I and the other drivers weren't expecting a sudden stop and we stopped behind these two large vehicles with signs. What the heck, we each thought. But then a sanitation worker got out of the dumpster and started hooking up a line to a plug in the ground at the entrance to the on-ramp. The two trailing vehicles were immediately behind the dumpster blocking entry to the on-ramp.
It became clear that no one was going to be able to enter the 405 at that on-ramp. One by one the cars began to pull out and head north. My brilliant plan to avoid congestion on the 710 had backfired. Now I had to head north a few blocks, then east for a block, make a u-turn, head back west and take Lakewood south so I could enter the 405 using the on-ramp on the other side of Lakewood. As I did so, wasting precious time, I noticed a huge row of cars waiting patiently to make their own u-turns. What a mess.
Welcome to travel on Los Angeles' God-forsaken freeway system.
But I knew better! By 2:20 p.m., the enormous trucks laden with cargo vessel containers were departing the Long Beach Port by the hundreds right onto the Long Beach Freeway heading to the train depot in downtown Los Angeles, leaving almost no room for automobiles. Too often I had forgotten that and paid the price by crawling along the Long Beach Freeway to the 405. No, this time I would take surface streets in eastern Long Beach north directly to the 405.
I was so proud of myself, that is until I almost reached the on-ramp to the 405 on Lakewood Boulevard. Just as the light was changing to green as I headed north on Lakewood Boulevard, literally a block from the Freeway entrance, three enormous sanitation department vehicles heading east on Willow Avenue entered the intersection and turned left onto Lakewood Boulevard. They headed toward the Freeway on-ramp. As I and about 10 other vehicles headed to the on-ramp on Lakewood as the light turned green, we found ourselves behind these 3 sanitation vehicles. One was a dumpster but the two trailing were large vehicles with electric signs on them. All three quickly turned onto the on-ramp but immediately stopped. The two trailing vehicles' electric signs said "Ramp Closed. Detour" with flashing arrows. I and the other drivers weren't expecting a sudden stop and we stopped behind these two large vehicles with signs. What the heck, we each thought. But then a sanitation worker got out of the dumpster and started hooking up a line to a plug in the ground at the entrance to the on-ramp. The two trailing vehicles were immediately behind the dumpster blocking entry to the on-ramp.
It became clear that no one was going to be able to enter the 405 at that on-ramp. One by one the cars began to pull out and head north. My brilliant plan to avoid congestion on the 710 had backfired. Now I had to head north a few blocks, then east for a block, make a u-turn, head back west and take Lakewood south so I could enter the 405 using the on-ramp on the other side of Lakewood. As I did so, wasting precious time, I noticed a huge row of cars waiting patiently to make their own u-turns. What a mess.
Welcome to travel on Los Angeles' God-forsaken freeway system.
