Driving through what must surely be the "freeway capital of the world" (and in my case, after a gap of almost a decade), one notices things.
Like:
...as many exits are links to other freeways as they are to city streets
...several of these interchanges contain as many as 7 lanes or more and significantly more complex than those in other big cities
...the carpool lanes seems to be 24x7 and contain breaks for exit/entry, but no barricades (heard that Toronto has those)
The message is quite clear. Whereever you are from, your traffic situation cannot compare with this. It is a good thing that I managed to get in and out of the place during the weekend.
But LA types think that the Bay Area freeways are confusing. That doesn't make sense to me at all. The unique geography of the San Francisco Bay Area prevents the kind of criss crossing freeway configuration that you see in LA. The massive bay itself requires bridges to cross. Had it been land, we'd have had freeways from Berkeley to SantaCruz, San Francisco to Fremont and so on. And then there are the mountains on all sides limiting the scope for freeways. LA does have its mountains too but they are in isolated pockets leaving massive swathes of flatland to play with.
And then there are the names. 101 is Ventura freeway in some sections and Hollywood freeway in others. And the same Hollywood freeway is numbered 170 in another section. Bay Area freeways have names too (mostly named after people) but no one seems to pay much attention to them.
