Santa Monica Freeway

Route information
	Maintained by CalTrans
Existed	1964–present
Major junctions
	I-405 in Culver City; I-110 in Los Angeles
Location
Country	United States
State	California
Highway system
	Southern California Freeway System

File:Interstate10la.jpg

Interstate 10; the Santa Monica Freeway segment is highlighted in red and the San Bernardino Freeway is highlighted in blue. The segment highlighted in green is sometimes referred to as the Redlands Freeway although as of 02.25.2006 this is unverified

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]

Control cities

Eastbound

Los Angeles

Westbound

Santa Monica

Communities served

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

Communities along the length of the Santa Monica Freeway include:

Sign marking an entrance to the Santa Monica Freeway.

Major Intersections

County	Location	Road(s)^[3]
I-10 Santa Monica Freeway becomes SR 1.
Los Angeles	Culver City	I-405 San Diego Freeway
Los Angeles	South Los Angeles	I-110-SOUTH/ SR-110-NORTH Harbor Freeway
Los Angeles	East Los Angeles	SR 60 Pomona Freeway
Traffic defaults on Golden State Freeway and continues alonge I-10 San Bernardino Freeway