Interchange Should Take Priority

Even on the best of mornings--a sunny school holiday, for instance--motorists dread the Gordian knot of concrete that passes for the interchange between the San Diego and Ventura freeways. As host to 555,000 vehicles a day, the interchange at the northern foot of the Santa Monica Mountains is the fourth-busiest freeway junction in Southern California. But even on the best of mornings, it feels as if all 555,000 vehicles are in the lane ahead.

Last week, Assemblyman Wally Knox (D-Los Angeles) called on Caltrans and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to put the overloaded interchange at the top of the improvement list to get traffic flowing smoothly again. A $10-million project proposed by Caltrans would add a lane to the northbound San Diego Freeway from Mulholland Drive to Ventura Boulevard and add a lane to the connector ramp between the northbound San Diego Freeway and the eastbound Ventura Freeway.

Problem: Caltrans’ solution won’t be up for funding for at least two years.

Knox wants the MTA to put the project on its list and seek part of more than $1 billion in transportation money to get the job started as early as next year. It’s a proposal worth studying. In any case, the MTA ought to begin the study process necessary to complete an application to the California Transportation Commission.

Fixing freeways is not nearly as sexy as building rail lines or installing high-tech traffic lights, but it must not be forgotten as the region tries to solve its long-term transportation problems. In fact, freeways remain the transit choice for most commuters. And no junction is more important to the daily traffic patterns of the San Fernando Valley than the 101-405 interchange.

Transportation planners who seem stuck in a traffic jam of their own should consider Knox’s suggestion and find a way to get work moving faster than it would under the current schedule. Would the new lanes solve the interchange’s problems? No. But they would ease congestion until the tangle could be redesigned to accommodate more vehicles. Such an important linchpin in the Valley’s transportation network cannot afford to be neglected any longer.