Freaky Freeways

Living an hour from Los Angeles, the "city of angeles" (aka LA), I dont think I have ever seen any angels flying over there but most drivers on its freeways seem to be flying high for sure. With its myriad number freeways being barely able to cope up with its enourmous traffic appetite, an outsider ,or worst, a first-timer, driving into LA at pretty much at any point of the day is sure to get hit with a shocking number of winding freeways, exiting on either sides at short notice, bumpy with sometimes narrow lanes, bumper-to-bumper traffic going mad at 80 mph, drivers who dont seem to use anything other than steering wheel and gas pedal, reckless truck drivers who join the meelee and to top it all off, the city's penchant for bright hoardings dangerously close to the freeway straining at the already stressed-out drivers' eyes throwing all sense of caution to the air. Throw in the night atmosphere in this mix, well, you will have one memorable experience. Trust me, I have had two in the last as many months.

Incidentally, a considerable chunk of LA traffic doesnt seem to go anywhere within LA. They are just cutting across the city to get to the other side and proceed their own ways. This is particularly true during holiday seasons. This bunch can be easily diverted outside of the city's freeways by having what we call in India as "by-pass" roads. Essentially a national highway enters a major crowded city and the traffic that does not have anything to do with the city just takes a bypass road and circumvents the city to catch the highway on the other end of the city. I dont know why such an idea dint get folded into the well-thought-out-and-executed American Freeway system. Definitely cities like LA stand to benefit from that. I wouldnt mind travelling an extra 30 miles or spending a buck more on the roadside coffee/snack if I can avoid cutting across LA, that too with my family now blissfully asleep in the rear seats.

To prove my point, attached pic shows a speeding pick-up truck (an F150) in front of me at close distance with the blue light from the freeway hoardings reflected off of the road. Picture taken with camera suspended at road level.