Not in So Cal, but the aspect of a 4 lane freeway flowing through the country side into the larger cities has always been an improvement over surface streets. Depending on the time of the day or night. Hello, When we lived in the Westside of Long Beach, the Long Beach Freeway was in a constant construction phase. Our dad always drove by the Wilmington oil fields near Lion’s Dragstrip (Alameda St.) to get to Downtown Los Angeles. We had gone on that street plenty of times and it always seem to be the straightest street from Long Beach to Los Angeles. Alameda Street went into the industrial area and we knew several places our dad took us to get some delicious food on the way home. The street was always lively and busy as one got closer to the Los Angeles downtown area. But, to our surprise, when we finally got to the phase that we could go over the freeway on PCH, the interchange not open yet was a marvel of construction. The huge 4 leaf clover shaped bridge and on/off ramps were a marvel of construction. Going across the high PCH bridge over the freeway being constructed and the next door Los Angeles River was fun as those were the tallest view points in that whole area. A view to the local mountains and the view all the way to the harbor/pacific ocean. Jnaki Once the 4 clover leaf interchange opened with the rest of the freeway to Los Angeles, our dad told us about it as he drove it almost daily. He actually preferred Alameda Street near Lion’s Dragstrip, as the freeway traffic was pretty fast at the beginning. Once the new freeway opened, the surface street, Alameda St. from Long Beach to Los Angeles had less traffic and our dad liked it. It took awhile for our dad to actually do his daily driving on the new Long Beach Freeway to Downtown Los Angeles. He then took us for several drives to see how the cloverleaf LB Freeway interchanges worked. The closest one was the PCH cross over. Just South toward downtown Long Beach, the other cloverleaf interchange was in play. Finally, he took us to the one we used almost daily coming home from Bixby Knolls and the northern areas at the Willow Street interchange. They were the only clover leaf interchange sections of the whole Long Beach Freeway. (The Willow St. exit merged and when the cars came to the stop light a half block West, the famous ) The big question is/was, why? They are the best at freeway entrance and merging. They are the best at lessening the traffic jams coming off of the freeway and merging with city traffic. If one wants to go in any direction and make a mistake, just get into the off ramp lane and start the cloverleaf pattern all over again. Once we got used to this method in the three intersections, all other on/off ramps in So Cal were old and outdated, even though they are/were newer. Note: Why aren’t more interchanges cloverleaf? Well, it does take up a lot of valuable land. When the OC, just East and South of Los Angeles/Long Beach area was just being developed, the builders/designers did not make any cloverleaf sections. And they had tons of land space, too. ... that freeway system should be called "Antiquated" as the off ramps/on ramps could be so much better...YRMV So, now everyone is stuck with "T" intersections with stop lights to stop the off freeway lanes. In the heavy traffic time, there is a backup of cars in the single lane to the right. It now jams up the freeway as one lane is almost stopped. What future since 1960? Progress?
The Jalopy Journal
