Do they love being stuck in traffic?
The 22 Freeway eastbound was closed all morning at Beach Boulevard (more work, we assume, for "The New 22". ) It's pretty rare to close an entire freeway -- especially during the day. Caltrans had lots of electronic signs warning of the closure. But still, the BB observed hundreds -- if not thousands -- of motorists who either didn't see or ignored the closure signs and kept driving. They paid a price: The detour off Beach was pure gridlock. Which raises a question: Why did they keep going when there were plenty of freeway and surface street alternatives? One recent study found that full freeway closures work if there are viable alternatives to get around. But you see it over and over: People driving right into a well-identified bottleneck.
Why do people knowingly drive into gridlock? What should be done? Hit the comment button and speak out!
For those experienced with freeway detours in Orange County, they're probably just worried that they won't be able to find their way back to the freeway.
On dozens of occasions over the past 10 years, I've been detoured from various OC freeways only to have the friendly orange 'detour' arrow signs abruptly disappear before delivering me safely back to my route.
At first I thought this was just bad luck on my part, until I mentioned it to my OC-dwelling friends who all related similar experiences.
Posted by: Greg Rutledge | April 03, 2007 at 02:56 PM
Why do people drive into a bottle neck? Usually because they are not aware of the surface streets in the area. The freeway is a comfortable place that is familiar. Surface streets can be a mystery, and in some areas, a danger. Or people can get lost, turned around or have a directional confusion and wind up driving East rather than West. More often than not, Caltrans does not offer viable alternatives or detours.
Posted by: Curtis Desilets | April 03, 2007 at 09:24 AM
Why do people drive into a bottle neck? Because NO ONE PAYS ATTENTION TO WARNINGS!!!! I heard about the 22 closure on the radio a week before, so I avoided it!
Can't engineer around stupidity, no matter how hard you work!
Posted by: Rob Howard | April 03, 2007 at 06:16 AM
Two concepts for quickly deploying zero-congestion and zero-accident cars. 1) Imitate the DARPA 2005 Grand and 2007 Urban Challenges but with car-2-car communication. 2) Our toys, entertainment, and communications devices already have all the necessary technology.
The average person would make money if our elected leaders ran the Challenge described at GuardianAngelCars.org.
Posted by: Mark E. Capron | April 01, 2007 at 08:08 PM
People are lemmings. Most of them don't deserve 10% of the beauty and resources available here in Southern California.
Simply: those in the bottleneck deserved to be there.
Posted by: Sal | April 01, 2007 at 07:49 AM