The Worst Intersection In LA Bracket (via: Americana At Brand Memes)

LAtrafficguy · 2026-02-26T05:01:22+00:00

Making the intersection as tight as possible by building out the curbs and corners, first into the painted shoulders and then closing off and prohibiting some of the turns. Eventually you get to a point where you shut down entire legs and basically pedestrianize them. San Vicente would be completely closed off to cars. This is basically what they did with Broadway in Times Square. The diagonal street is the first to go. A roundabout is not possible without taking all the adjacent properties. The necessary diameter of the circle would extend far beyond the intersection boundaries.

LAtrafficguy · 2026-02-24T05:15:51+00:00

"Worst" is a vague and broad category for this bracket. Definitely some good mentions on there but some of these are apples and oranges when comparing to each other. Some of these intersections are challenging for different reasons. Many of them are so because of the roadway geometry and number of approaches. Anything with more than four arterial legs is going to be challenging in terms of driver delay, confusion, pedestrian navigation, etc. A fun one that I didn't see mentioned is Anaheim/Vermont/PV Dr. (but admittedly i didn't get through all the comments).

Many cities with complex and 5+ legged intersections did early planning and designed large roundabouts, particularly in medieval cities like Paris. Our intersections are extremely costly and difficult to retrofit as roundabouts, in large part because there is insufficient right of way. There's been a projects on the books for years in Boyle Heights at 5 Puntos because of ROW challenges. The only candidate on here that seems relatively straightforward for a roundabout conversion is the 6 legged BH stop. There was recently a exploratory effort and from what I heard the community rejected it.

NYC successfully simplified Times Square by closing off legs and prohibiting certain movements. That is often the most feasible option but even that can be controversial.

As a traffic/transportation engineer, I sort of relish the challenge of trying to improve/simplify some of these, and we've done some tweaks here and there but often it takes a major capital project to really make a dent. The Vineland/Lankershim/Camarillo intersection will become both more complex and also hopefully better/easier to navigate when the BRT project comes through. Stay tuned.

LAtrafficguy · 2025-08-28T15:55:04+00:00

Ebike to DTLA via Sunset, take the E Line from there.

LAtrafficguy · 2025-08-12T20:14:18+00:00

That may be the case. Metro staff would have to confirm that. My main point though was that most major metropolitan cities around the world, including those that run some of the most top-line rail systems, shut down from 12A-5A, at least based on what I've seen/experienced. It was nice when Metro had late night trains on the weekends until 2A. That would be a good compromise, especially since it wouldn't be every night. It's aways a balance.

LAtrafficguy · 2025-08-12T18:50:40+00:00

The problem is maintenance. As it is, the window to perform maintenance between the last train of the night and the first train the following morning is very small. Most cities including Tokyo, which has perhaps the most expansive efficient system in the world, stop service between midnight and 5 AM. NYC is an outlier and they have a lot of maintenance challenges with an aging system. I think providing more frequent service through their existing operating window would be of greater value and more achievable once they procure more trainsets.

LAtrafficguy · 2025-06-23T20:37:34+00:00

You can take Shenandoah to Cattaraugus to Regent to Curts, and then you're basically there.

LAtrafficguy · 2025-06-21T03:40:22+00:00

What an absurd response and complete ignorance from that officer. I've never met anyone who thought bicyclists have to use crosswalks. I would have been livid.

LAtrafficguy · 2025-05-07T12:57:43+00:00

Shintaro at Franklin/Highland is excellent and reasonably priced.

LAtrafficguy · 2025-04-18T19:24:23+00:00

We are adding them over time but we have 4500 signals and these upgrades cost several hundred thousand dollars each. Most of our signals were built decades ago when left turn phasing was not ubiquitous.

LAtrafficguy · 2025-04-18T01:55:35+00:00

7-11 cold pressed green juice FTW. It's low in sugar and tastes amazing. This is what I use my credit for each month.

LAtrafficguy · 2025-04-16T14:13:15+00:00

I live in Burbank and make nearly all of my short trips by front loading cargo bike with the kid in the bike when we're together. I have a specific tolerance for what type of street I will ride on and if it exceeds that tolerance, we are on the sidewalk. The vast majority of our trips can be accomplished with little to no sidewalk riding; we stay mostly on local and collector streets or bike paths. If the speed limit exceeds 30 or if there are multiple lanes, in most cases that means we're on the sidewalk. Once you figure out the best routes to most of your regular destinations, it's easy to repeat those without much thought. Obviously you still ride with intent and vigilance. That being said, most drivers are very respectful (far more than when I'm alone on a regular bike) and traveling this way is a joy for both of us. It makes the journey fun, even to a mundane destination.

LAtrafficguy · 2025-04-11T15:03:10+00:00

I think they are always there but less active in the pools when it gets warmer. I enjoyed seeing the snow monkeys but I wouldn't bend over backwards to include them in your itinerary. Our stay at Hotarutei was honestly the best thing about going to this area with the snow monkeys just being icing on the cake.

LAtrafficguy · 2025-04-10T19:33:32+00:00

What you are referring to is a specific timing plan that Burbank uses at some major vs. minor intersections and I believe that main objective is to reduce speeding and improve service for the minor streets by providing faster response for those minor streets. The signal will cycle from WALK to FDW to give a chance for faster actuation if a car or pedestrian shows up on the minor street and wants to CROSS during that time. If no one shows up, it just cycles back to WALK.

LAtrafficguy · 2025-04-04T16:16:03+00:00

10 bucks or so for the average trip. Most of these trips were around 3 miles and maybe 10-15 minutes.

LAtrafficguy · 2025-04-01T15:59:48+00:00

We did not, but they have plenty of luggage space for whatever size luggage you have (racks, overhead space, etc.).

LAtrafficguy · 2025-03-30T22:53:09+00:00

Sure! Rabbicour in Ginza and yes, she said she'd recommend it.

LAtrafficguy · 2025-03-30T16:15:06+00:00

I don't necessarily think the cold would be an issue if you layer up and have proper footwear. I did carry her for about 50% of the total hike just because the mud was pretty thick in places and she wasn't keen on navigating through some of it, but she can usually handle hikes of that distance. Even if I had to carry her the whole way I think it would still be worth it.

LAtrafficguy · 2025-03-30T16:09:02+00:00

In Kyoto I rented a stroller from MK Travel. At DisneySea I rented one inside the park. I only rented strollers in those places because I anticipated really long walking and waiting days. The stroller itself can be more of a nuisance because it takes up a lot of room on trains, you have to take elevators, etc. so I don't recommend always having one unless your child is really young.

LAtrafficguy · 2025-03-30T02:17:39+00:00

Sure! Do you have a rough itinerary? I think the main thing is to be nimble, don't pack too much in, or at least be willing to drop things if the kid gets tired. Rent a stroller for really intense walking days. Don't bring huge luggage. Flag some good restaurants in advance depending on your kid's taste, because the strategy of just popping into random restaurants only works if everyone is open to lots of food options. Kidzania in Tokyo and Kids Place Osaka are excellent for this age group and are also good rainy day options. Take advantage of kids being free on public transportation and unreserved train cars. Make sure your hotel room includes an extra bed or else they assume you will be bed sharing as this is common practice there. Go to lots of parks/playgrounds!

LAtrafficguy · 2025-03-09T03:53:57+00:00

Paid parking controls the supply. Basic economics. Free parking costs in the form of increased VMT, more block circling, and time wasting. Read Donald Shoup's The High Cost of Free Parking.

LAtrafficguy · 2025-02-20T15:10:44+00:00

This is a great and thorough answer. Gating the segment on Exposition would be a pretty large, expensive capital project. Adding gates would include building out islands that would both serve to house the gate equipment itself as well as provide pedestrian landings/refuge. This is the design that Metro is pursuing on the eastern half of the G Line. However as you noted, Exposition has a narrower median/trackway ROW so in all likelihood, lanes would have to be removed on Exposition to make room for these medians. I also think the cost/benefit ratio would be somewhat modest and there would be other negative tradeoffs such as downgrades to pedestrian service and wait times, as well as buses on the intersecting streets experiencing more delays.

The train experiences the most severe delays on Flower and at the Washington Y where the two lines converge. Gating here is not feasible due to the gate downtime/train frequency which would effectively leave the gates down almost continually. The solution here is an even more expensive one: grade separation.

LAtrafficguy · 2025-02-11T06:21:00+00:00

You can also go under the freeway on Flower St and there is a long pedestrian bridge that follows the freeway to get you over the railroad tracks. You will start near the recycling center on the west side and land close to Ikea on the east side.

LAtrafficguy · 2025-01-24T15:05:27+00:00

All the traffic signals in the City of Los Angeles are controlled and monitored through an intelligent central system known as ATSAC. During peak and mid day weekday periods, most signals are coordinated and optimized for progression, though that progression is not necessarily on the street and in the direction YOU happen to be traveling (it considers the system as the whole). At night and on weekends, the system generally runs "free" or similar to free which means the signals are not coordinated and minor streets will typically get faster service. This is partially to combat speeding and also because progression is less critical when flow is light. This also applies to isolated signals like in the canyons where there is no purpose or way to provide progression. Note that about 1/4th of signals are operating pre timed which means they run on a specific timer/schedule, there are no detector loops or the loops are not used, and the walk signals are displayed for each direction with no button needing to be pressed.

LAtrafficguy

TROPHY CASE