Tuesday, December 09, 2008

empty highways


you don't see this too often in los angeles county. a highway with zero cars on it. this is the 710, a little highway that never quite turned into what it was supposed to be. you can read more about that controversy on the wikipedia page for the 710.

9 comments:

Kathryn L said...

Cool pic Ben! Did a quick read up on the 710 from your link...sounds like a few scrapped highways in and around Toronto...including one that was supposed to leave from the downtown core go east through Scarborough and up the Rouge River Valley to Stouffville. Craziness.

Laurie Allee said...

We don't mention the 710 in these parts! (Shudder!)

ben wideman said...

If you listen hard enough, you can hear them tunneling under South Pas. to make this highway complete!

Laurie, am I thinking correctly that you have posted about this very issue before?

Anonymous said...

I don't know why they don't stick a connecting freeway up San Gabriel blvd instead of going through South Pasadena. It would have been the perfect mid point between the 10 and the 210.

Anonymous said...

those of us originating from SoPas don't like the numerals 710. no, not one bit.

A lot of the folks on "the other side" of the 110 (old 11 fwy) are often thought of differently...I suspect were the 710 installed as planned, similar things might happen.

this little stub has always been a bit dangerous---wherever you are, you probably want to be in a different lane, NOW. Gawd help you if you are a visitor---I used to stay away from this area the 2 weeks previous to Jan 1st, due to the influx of visitors driving around.

pasadenaadjacent---there is this great fwy---the 605, does about the same thing you're talking about, or the 39...but yes something up around SGBlvd might be nice too.

the interesting thing is that the 710 has been fought over for 50+ years (ergo, longer than I've been alive)---yet for eons, CalTrans has been buying up properties because "the 710 is coming, soon!", which for many years, turned into deadbeat rentals, and you could tell which houses those were.

tunneling seems the answer, but for those that remember what happened when the Metro drilled in downtown LA and hit lots of methane, I am not sure SoPas wants that either--but it would flatten some of those CalTrans homes that look like cr@p! humnnnn, two birds, one stone!

ben wideman said...

The only benefit to the 710 as it stands is that it helps you get to the south side of Pasadena from the 210/134 interchange.

This line in the wiki article seems key -- "Pro- and anti-710 lobbies have debated whether finishing I-710 would alleviate any of the San Gabriel Valley's congestion, or merely displace it from surface streets to the freeway."

Mister Earl said...

South Pasadena rules, Ben. That's all there is to it.

Amanda Mae said...

We didn't know this when we were driving from La Mirada to Pasadena... we decided to wing it and follow signs.. it said "710 to Pasadena" ... some how we ended up on 10 freeway going east?

ben wideman said...

Mr. E, I'm starting to believe.

Amanda - that is too funnY!