April 19, 2007

Entire Freeway Gets Towed for Red Flag Day

The 110 on the 5
NEVER DID I SUSPECT that the many talents of the Los Angeles Fire Department (rescuing river dwellers, saving the Hollywood sign) included moving major traffic arteries. Nor that the LAFD could reposition a California freeway with the speed and efficiency (but luckily not the apocalyptic recklessness) of Magneto moving the Golden Gate Bridge.

This morning I find (via Metroblogging) that the LAFD Red Flag warning map for council district 13 - the map that shows where your car will be towed on days with "wind speeds 25 mph or more and humidity 15% or less" - has towed the 110 freeway.

Yesterday I-110 connected downtown LA and Pasadena. Today it runs north, past Atwater Village and into Burbank, where previously only I-5 feared to tread.

What does this mean for Angelenos? Probably nothing. We employ a double redundancy system for naming LA freeways. Each stretch earns a numerical designation (the 110, the 5, the 10) and a provincial destination (Pasadena, Golden State, Rosa Parks).

So instead of driving from Chinatown to Chatsworth via the 110 to the 5 to the 118, take the Pasadena Freeway to the Golden State Freeway to the Ronald Reagan Freeway.

You know, like always.

2 comments:

Los Angeles Fire Department said...

Thanks for the mention of an issue that has caused many of us to grin (and sigh) for the past year.

Though our office staff gladly maintains both the LAFD.ORG homepage and the LAFD News & Information blog (to the best of our abilities), we are 100% hands-off of the Red Flag No Parking site for the City of Los Angeles.

As such, we sadly can't make the changes you highlight. Your mention and blog post however, will hopefully reinvigorate earlier efforts to make the corrections.

Thanks for making AVN one of our favorite blogs. In both content and tone, your on-line offerings are an assett to members of the community (and those who proudly serve them).

Back from nearly a month away, I've clearly got some cathching up to do!

Respectfully Yours in Safety and Service,

Brian Humphrey
Firefighter/Specialist
Public Service Officer
Los Angeles Fire Department

The Real Zajac said...

The 10 has a plethora of names: The Ten, Interstate Ten, I-10, Santa Monica Freeway, Rosa Parks Freeway, Christopher Columbus Transcontinental Highway.

Oh, and the 110 is only an interstate south of the 10. the section northwards to Pasadena is officially a state highway.