Santa Monica Freeway: Difference between revisions

Route information
	Maintained by Caltrans
Major junctions
	I-405 in Culver City; I-110/SR 110 in Los Angeles
Location
Country	United States
State	California
Highway system
	Southern California freeways

Browse history interactively

← Previous edit Next edit →

Content deleted Content added

VisualWikitext

Inline

Revision as of 22:32, 25 January 2008

The Santa Monica Freeway is the westernmost segment of Interstate 10, beginning at the western terminus of I-10 at the Pacific Coast Highway in Santa Monica, California and ending southeast of downtown Los Angeles at the famous East Los Angeles Interchange. (I-10 continues as the San Bernardino Freeway.) The section between the Harbor and San Diego freeways is also signed as the Rosa Parks Freeway. The freeway is signed as the Christopher Columbus Transcontinental Highway in Santa Monica. The freeway is 14 lanes wide (2 local, 5 express in each direction) from the Harbor Freeway interchange to the Arlington Avenue offramp; most of these lanes are full at peak travel times (even on Saturdays). The remainder of the freeway varies between 8 and 10 lanes in width. The whole freeway was opened in 1964.

While the construction of the Century Freeway several miles to the south eased traffic congestion to a considerable amount by creating an alternate route from downtown to Los Angeles International Airport, the Santa Monica Freeway is still one of the busiest freeways in the world. All three freeway-to-freeway interchanges along its length are notorious for their congestion and are routinely ranked among the top 10 most congested spots in the United States.

Accidents

A typical traffic jam on the Santa Monica Freeway, at 2:30 p.m. on a Wednesday afternoon

Due to the high traffic volume, car accidents are so common that Caltrans has constructed special Accident Investigation Sites separated from the freeway by fences. These enable the California Highway Patrol to quickly clear accidents from the through traffic lanes, and the fences reduce congestion by preventing rubbernecking (where cars slow to watch the accident investigation).

Fame

The Santa Monica Freeway is the freeway for which ground is being broken in the film L.A. Confidential. It is also remembered for a partial collapse west of downtown (at the large interchange with La Cienega, Venice and Washington boulevards) after the 1994 Northridge Earthquake. The title of punk rock legends The Minutemen's 1984 double album, Double Nickels on the Dime, is trucker slang referring to the freeway's then-current speed limit of 55 miles per hour (90 km/h).

Legal definition

The Santa Monica Freeway is Route 10 from Route 1 to Route 5, as named by the State Highway Commission on April 25 1957.^[1]

The Rosa Parks Freeway is Route 10 from Route 110 to Route 405, as named by Assembly Concurrent Resolution 134, Chapter 2 in 2002.^[2]

Communities served

The Santa Monica Freeway interchange with the Harbor Freeway, as seen by traffic going westbound on the Santa Monica

Control Cities signs officially in bold:

Sign marking an entrance to the Santa Monica Freeway.

References

^ 2006 Named Freeways, Highways, Structures and Other Appurtenances in California (PDF). Caltrans. p. 63. Retrieved 2007-03-28.
^ Ib. at 62

Template:LA Freeways

[1] 2006 Named Freeways, Highways, Structures and Other Appurtenances in California (PDF). Caltrans. p. 63. Retrieved 2007-03-28.

[2] Ib. at 62

[1]

[2]

@@ Line 12: / Line 12: @@
 |junction=[[Image:I-405 (CA).svg|25x20px]] [[Interstate 405 (California)|I-405]] in [[Culver City, California|Culver City]]<br>[[Image:I-110 (CA).svg|25x20px]] [[Image:California 110.svg|25x20px]] [[Interstate 110 (California)|I-110]]/[[California State Route 110|SR 110]] in [[Los Angeles, California|Los Angeles]]
 |direction_b=East
-|ending_terminus=[[Image:I-5 (CA).svg|25x20px]] [[Interstate 5 in California|I-5]] [[Image:California 60.svg|25x20px]] [[California State Route 60|SR 60]] in Downtown [[Los Angeles, California|Los Angeles]]
+|ending_terminus=[[Image:I-5 (CA).svg|25x20px]] [[Interstate 5 in California|I-5]] / [[Image:California 60.svg|25x20px]] [[California State Route 60|SR 60]] in Downtown [[Los Angeles, California|Los Angeles]]
 |system=[[Southern California freeways]]
 }}