Welcome to Los Angeles, where standstill traffic, frequent accidents, and seemingly endless red lights are all too familiar.
In the sprawling expanse of LA’s streets and intersections, a few notorious spots consistently wreak havoc for those behind the wheel.
According to new data from the Los Angeles Times, certain roads and intersections stand out as the most problematic in the city.
Leading the pack is the busy intersection of Highland Avenue and Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. This bustling junction not only sees the highest traffic volumes in the city but has also been the site of over 300 collisions since 2010, as reported by the Times.
USC traffic engineering expert James Moore explained to the Times that the congestion is largely due to the intersection’s role as a key entry point to Hollywood, attracting a high number of tourists in addition to regular traffic.
Following closely is the intersection of Sepulveda Boulevard and Lincoln Boulevard in Westchester. Many drivers use these streets as shortcuts to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), despite the Times noting there’s no clear evidence that these routes actually save time.
The junction sits next to the infamous In-N-Out overlooking the runway, so drivers at least get a view of planes taking off as they sit in bumper-to-bumper traffic.
Since 2010, there have been 99 traffic collisions at the intersection, according to the paper.
The third-worst intersection is at MLK and Crenshaw, where a “nexus of two ultra-wide corridors” converges with multiple lanes of traffic.
The difficulty of navigating and maneuvering the streets has resulted in 348 collisions since 2010, and the intersection has the ninth-highest traffic volume of any in the city, according to research from the Times.
Third and Alvarado streets in the Westlake neighborhood, followed by El Segundo Boulevard and Hoover Street in the Athens neighborhood, round out the top five worst intersections in LA.
Moore told the Times the Westlake intersection is also a public transportation hub, “so an elevated share of traffic is transit vehicles,” while the El Segundo interchange is particularly problematic because drivers use it as a shortcut for northbound 110 motorists trying to bypass traffic.
Notably absent from the list was the notorious “Fairfax Asterisk” — the tangled intersection of Fairfax Avenue, Olympic Boulevard and San Vicente Boulevard — long considered one of the city’s most dysfunctional layouts.
