Angelenos crowned the region’s worst intersection Thursday in a social media competition — a tangle of streets on the border of Los Feliz and Sunset Junctions.
The intersection is at Virgil Avenue and Sunset and Hollywood boulevards near the Vista Theater.
“It took me so long to go to the Vons to the Vista and nothing was happening. It wasn’t like it was constant traffic,” said Mr. Glen Dale, the anonymous account holder of Americana at Brand Memes and the mastermind behind the competition. "There is something wrong here that this is so disorganized.”
After a month of voting across about 30 rounds, the Beverly Hills six-way stop came in second place, which seemed to upset some of the account’s more than 115,000 followers.
“I was shocked at the amount of comments each day,” Mr. Glen Dale told LAist. “It felt like a therapy session in the comment section of people complaining about each intersection and really diving into which one is worse.”
This year’s basketball-less twist on March Madness, the “One Bad Intersection After Another” bracket, pitted dozens of infamous intersections against each other with rounds divided by general geographic area: “East Side-ish,” “West Side-ish,” “Central LA-ish” and the “Valley-ish.”
Mr. Glen Dale said he designed it to be a democratic process for people to collectively crown the worst in L.A. once and for all. The results are more based on bad vibes and voters’ personal experiences rather than traffic volume and accident data.
To celebrate the winners Thursday, Americana at Brand Memes shared some of what the account does best — curated L.A. memes.
Mr. Glen Dale also drove to each of the final intersections with numbered balloons to represent their rankings, including third place’s Fairfax Avenue / Olympic / San Vincente Boulevards and Lankershim Boulevard / Vineland Avenue / Camarillo Street in fourth.
Angelenos voted the Virgil Avenue, Sunset and Hollywood Boulevards intersection by the Los Feliz border as the region's worst intersection in a competition run by Americana at Brand Memes on Instagram.
The Beverly Hills six-way stop came in a close second. Mr. Glen Dale celebrated each of the top winners with balloons.
Third place for the region's worst intersection went to Fairfax Avenue / Olympic / San Vincente Boulevards from the "Central LA-ish" round.
About the finalists
One Instagram user wrote that they’ve been waiting at the winner “the entire duration of this competition,” with another adding that their “years of suffering at this intersection are finally seen.”
But the six-way stop didn’t go down easily, with a user arguing that it’s the real “essence of chaos” with “no lights, no order, no sanity.”
“EVERYONE IS HONKING,” the user wrote. “Pedestrians are running to cross because there is ALWAYS a car coming at you with a wide-eyed driver white knuckling it while somebody else screams at them.”
The memes took on a voting theme, elections and the Oscars included.
To celebrate the infamous intersection winners, Americana at Brand Memes shared some of what the account does best — curated L.A. memes.
But after spending more than four hours visiting the final contenders on Wednesday, Mr. Glen Dale said the Beverly Hills stop felt pretty breezy and easy compared to the others.
“I think it goes Fairfax 1, Lankershim 2, Virgil 3, Beverly Hills 4,” Mr. Glen Dale said. “So, I'm very different on this one, but I think after going to each one yesterday and having to deal with it, that's my official ranking.”
‘No matter who wins, it's all bad’
On LAist’s AirTalk program last month, Brian in Hollywood nominated Highland and Franklin avenues for the region’s worst intersection, saying it's actually two combined.
Brian said the intersection is affected by Hollywood Boulevard closures and Live Nation events that bring in thousands of people into the area while commuters are trying to get through the Cahuenga Pass.
“It actually has people stopped and blocked in the intersection, not allowing others to go through because of this,” Brian said, who described being hit by a vehicle while walking nearby. “That intersection is a domino effect to all the other intersections surrounding it in the radius.”
Gina in Glendale told AirTalk that the intersection of Fairfax Avenue and Olympic Boulevard is a “horror show.”
“Whoever designed it — if there was a design — a monster,” Gina wrote. “It's always backed up and confusing.”
Rana in Pasadena told AirTalk the Academy Road and Stadium Way intersection in Elysian Park during the morning commute is both “terribly dangerous” and “extremely inefficient”
As with any election, not every voter is happy with the results.
At least one Instagram user wrote that they’re “still pissed that Koreatown beat out Silverlake Trader Joe’s” in last year’s March Madness competition.
For that bracket, Americana at Brand Memes pitted the region’s worst parking against each other, with the dense L.A. neighborhood sweeping the competition after multiple submissions in the comments.
Will LA’s twist on March Madness be returning next year?
Mr. Glen Dale said he felt the heat from his followers as the results were revealed, but he knows it’s all in good fun.
“You talk to me now, I'm like so exhausted and tired of it that I'm like, I can't imagine doing this again,” Mr. Glen Dale said. “But … you forget, and I'm sure next year I'll want to do it.”
