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Video Drives Home How Scary The 110 Freeway Ramps Are
Anyone who's been on the Arroyo Seco Parkway (aka 110 Freeway) knows just how scary it is having to get on or off the old-school ramps. Sometimes you get to a grinding halt before having to gun it onto the curvy freeway. It's expert-level driving, for sure.
GOOD released a video this week about our treacherous Arroyo Seco Parkway, an 8.2-mile stretch going from downtown L.A. to Pasadena, which just so happens to be L.A.'s first freeway that opened in 1940. Through resident interviews, images and videos, GOOD tries to show just how dangerous those hairpin turns are, and how this stretch of the freeway wasn't made for modern speed.
Even Ali Zaghari, the Deputy Director of Operations at Caltrans, admits there is an issue. "We know now very clearly that parkway is not standard," he says in the video. "We have no shoulder, the lane widths are too narrow."
Earlier this year, Jack Fenn of Montecito Heights and Clare Marter-Kenyon of Mount Washington started a petition to turn the right lanes near the Avenue 43 ramps, a rather dangerous section, into an on-off lane only, and not for through traffic. They just need a little over 110 signatures to reach their goal of 1,000. (You can see their petition here.)
However, Zaghari argues that doing this could cause congestion on the tight freeway. About three years ago, Caltrans released a report, the Historic Arroyo Seco Parkway Corridor Partnership Plan, that studied the Arroyo Seco Parkway. It suggested doing just that as well as reducing the maximum speed from 55 mph to 45 mph from Glenarm Street in Pasadena to the 5 Freeway junction, among other measures. Though, the expensive changes will take years to make, according to the petition. The petitioners argue that they want the Avenue 43 change to be made now.
GOOD's video is part of their new series with their partner, Progressive Insurance, called, "The Big Road Fix," that looks at transportation issues across the country.
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Related:
Video: The Artist Who Took A DIY Approach To A Confusing 110 Freeway Sign
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