Standstill traffic, accidents and endless red lights — welcome to Los Angeles.
Among the thousands of miles of streets and intersections in LA, a select few are notorious for creating havoc for drivers.
New data compiled by the Los Angeles Times details which thoroughfares and intersections rank the worst in the City of Angels.
Topping the list is the Hollywood intersection at Highland and Sunset — it has the highest volume of traffic and more than 300 collisions since 2010, the Times reported.
James Moore, a traffic engineering expert from USC, told the Times the gridlock stems from the corridor serving as a gateway to Hollywood, and that “elevated flows likely include tinsel-town tourists.”
Coming in second is the Westchester intersection of Sepulveda and Lincoln, where drivers frequently use the streets as “short cuts” to LAX — even though, as the Times notes, there is no evidence it actually saves motorists 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.
