Newbie here from Los Angeles!

[bulkyorled]

Hey all! I been here a few days but somehow ignored this board  

Im Alex, 20 years old, live in the San Fernando Valley, been interested in road signs and traffic lights my whole life. I always thought I was weird until I found this! I have an obsession with the illuminated street signs as a few of you might have seen in a thread I posted talking about them, and im also looking to get ahold of some if anyone has them! I'm also collecting street name signs from cities in Los Angeles county as well as local freeway route shields. haha I cant explain why I like what I like but its always been interesting to me! So here I am! I've got a lot of nothing to do so sorry if you see me around a lot on here  

[andy3175]

I am also a Southern California road enthusiast. Hope you have seen the new signs on I-5 south for SR 110 Arroyo Seco Parkway ... those are pretty cool. There are also some new diagram signs for the 110 south to I-10 interchange near downtown LA. I am also surprised at the amount of work on I-5 between 118 and Burbank, including the new 5-170 ramps currently under construction.

Regards,
Andy

[Takumi]

Welcome from Virginia.

[agentsteel53]

Hope you have seen the new signs on I-5 south for SR 110 Arroyo Seco Parkway ... those are pretty cool.

approximately 1/100th as cool as the early 1960s signage they replaced.

[andy3175]

Agentsteel53,... definitely agree old sign is cool, but if they have to replace the sign, at least they did so by honoring the original Arroyo Seco Parkway on the new sign.

Regards,
Andy

[bulkyorled]

Hope you have seen the new signs on I-5 south for SR 110 Arroyo Seco Parkway ... those are pretty cool.

Sure have. When did they change it to "110 Parkway"? I had been away from the area for a bit, then I noticed they call it a Parkway now between the 5 and the end of it in the North. I get the Arroyo Seco Pkwy but that it is actually signed that now is new to me haha 

The 110 is my favorite freeway, everyone goes too fast and you gotta be quick at the switch so you don't flip out. Plus it's nearly the only route anywhere I've seen with LED reflectors

[CentralCAroadgeek]

Welcome Alex! This coming from a fellow Californian in Salinas. It sure is a long time (last summer) since I went that far south (LA). LA freeways really interest me. I've always wanted to go on 405, just to experience the traffic there.

[bulkyorled]

Thanks!
Ah yea thats something everyone needs to experience whe nthey visit LA, is the traffic.

[blawp]

Welcome. I'm Tyler, 26 and live in Thousand Oaks. Glad to see another SoCal member.

[kurumi]

Welcome from NoCal.

It looks like the new construction on the 5/14 interchange will result in three ways to get to Highway 14 from I-5 northbound: general-purpose, truck, and HOV. I wonder if there are any other interchanges like this.

[bulkyorled]

Thanks for all the welcomes

I use that interchange a lot as I have family in Lancaster, it looks great and its way better than it use to be. It was terrible coming off the 210 if you needed the 5 north since it use to favor the 14 north right there. Its also not as scary coming onto the 5 from the 14 as it use to be. haha

[andy3175]

There is at least one other interchange that has the HOV-main-truck configuration: I-5/I-405 split in the OC. I am not sure if HOV connectors are proposed at the northern I-5/405 split, since that's where there's already a truck bypass.

Most other major freeway splits have two of these features, but generally not all three.

Cheers,
Andy

[andy3175]

To clarify, I meant many major freeway interchanges in LA/OC have direct HOV ramps, but that's certainly not true everywhere! LA/OC seems to have a very extensive network of HOV lanes.

Andy

[bulkyorled]

I actually forgot about that interchange I swear I never use it anymore. When Im coming home from visiting family I use the 210/5 and when im going anywhere else Im usually using the 210/118 or anything off the 170 so I completely miss it.

[nexus73]

Thanks for all the great posts Bulky!  I enjoy reading them very much.

Rick

[mgk920]

Welcome. I'm Tyler, 26 and live in Thousand Oaks. Glad to see another SoCal member.

I have a good friend who lives on Chestnut St in Thousand Oaks.



Mike

[bulkyorled]

Thanks for all the great posts Bulky!  I enjoy reading them very much.

Rick

No problem I enjoy posting and reading other posts here too!!! I dont think its been a week yet and I've posted quite a bit i feel

[nexus73]

Thanks for all the great posts Bulky!  I enjoy reading them very much.

Rick

No problem I enjoy posting and reading other posts here too!!! I dont think its been a week yet and I've posted quite a bit i feel

Well, when you have a lot to say, you'll post a lot...LOL!  It's always neat when someone who has so much bottled up in them comes along to a site and shares what's buzzing in their brain.  Your enthusiasm and spirit is very uplifting!  If only I could place a tenth of that energy of yours into ODOT and the Oregon legislature when it comes to transportation issues.

Rick

[bulkyorled]

Thanks for all the great posts Bulky!  I enjoy reading them very much.

Rick

No problem I enjoy posting and reading other posts here too!!! I dont think its been a week yet and I've posted quite a bit i feel

Well, when you have a lot to say, you'll post a lot...LOL!  It's always neat when someone who has so much bottled up in them comes along to a site and shares what's buzzing in their brain.  Your enthusiasm and spirit is very uplifting!  If only I could place a tenth of that energy of yours into ODOT and the Oregon legislature when it comes to transportation issues.

Rick

I've got one friend I kind talk to about these things but after a while they're kinda like "what the eff" about it haha cause it gets serious. We're more into street signs than freeways/highways but you can't avoid it in Los Angeles what with there being an abundance of them! Now if I could get a job in this field that doesn't require me standing out in the heat/cold building the actual roadways I'd be set!   

[nexus73]

Thanks for all the great posts Bulky!  I enjoy reading them very much.

Rick

No problem I enjoy posting and reading other posts here too!!! I dont think its been a week yet and I've posted quite a bit i feel

Well, when you have a lot to say, you'll post a lot...LOL!  It's always neat when someone who has so much bottled up in them comes along to a site and shares what's buzzing in their brain.  Your enthusiasm and spirit is very uplifting!  If only I could place a tenth of that energy of yours into ODOT and the Oregon legislature when it comes to transportation issues.

Rick

I've got one friend I kind talk to about these things but after a while they're kinda like "what the eff" about it haha cause it gets serious. We're more into street signs than freeways/highways but you can't avoid it in Los Angeles what with there being an abundance of them! Now if I could get a job in this field that doesn't require me standing out in the heat/cold building the actual roadways I'd be set!   

Well Bulky. you now have hundreds of online friends to talk to about your transportation interests!  Street signs qualify too.  The best thing about the interwebz is the ability to find a community of interests that coincide with your own.  Being 20 means your voyage of discovery in the adult world is just beginning.  If I could live long enough, I'd like to see how it went when you were in your 60's and hear how the path of life went.  You have my best wishes!

Rick

[bulkyorled]

Thanks for all the great posts Bulky!  I enjoy reading them very much.

Rick

No problem I enjoy posting and reading other posts here too!!! I dont think its been a week yet and I've posted quite a bit i feel

Well, when you have a lot to say, you'll post a lot...LOL!  It's always neat when someone who has so much bottled up in them comes along to a site and shares what's buzzing in their brain.  Your enthusiasm and spirit is very uplifting!  If only I could place a tenth of that energy of yours into ODOT and the Oregon legislature when it comes to transportation issues.

Rick

I've got one friend I kind talk to about these things but after a while they're kinda like "what the eff" about it haha cause it gets serious. We're more into street signs than freeways/highways but you can't avoid it in Los Angeles what with there being an abundance of them! Now if I could get a job in this field that doesn't require me standing out in the heat/cold building the actual roadways I'd be set!   

Well Bulky. you now have hundreds of online friends to talk to about your transportation interests!  Street signs qualify too.  The best thing about the interwebz is the ability to find a community of interests that coincide with your own.  Being 20 means your voyage of discovery in the adult world is just beginning.  If I could live long enough, I'd like to see how it went when you were in your 60's and hear how the path of life went.  You have my best wishes!

Rick

Well if your age is correct on your post you'll be almost 100 by then but it could happen! haha I imagine the road related things I see will be unlike anything we've seen. Even some of the freeways here in LA have seen a huge transformation in my life that people wouldn't have guessed probably around the time i was born.

[nexus73]

My age is most certainly correct.  LA freeways go back to before I was born.  It's funny for me to see multiple lanes jammed up with early postwar cars and trucks.  Your perspective gets time shifted due to you only being 20 at this time and the pace of change has increased, so I expect when you're my age and a 20 year old enthusiast comes along, you will think about all that has transpired in just your lifetime and go, "Wow!" and wonder what the young generation will see when they get to your middle and old age.

My maternal grandmother was born in 1912, the year the Titanic sank.  Steamships without sails had not been around long.  The radio and airplane were invented just a few years prior.  There was no real highway system.  Cars were just beginning to become a mass market item. 

So when you are older, some young person you know is going to see 2112.  Think about all that can take place in a 200 year timeframe.  Will there be roads on the Moon and Mars?  Bridges/tunnels connecting across the Bering Straits and Straits of Gibralter?  Maybe we make it to the Centauri systems (Proxima and Alpha) and if we do, what gets built there? 

No matter what we build or where we build it, nothing gets built unless someone has a desire to build.  You my friend have that in spades!  That gives me hope for the future, one in which no one will remember me or you or anyone else with enough passage of time.  However, someone had to build the Sphinx and the major pyramids at Giza, so let those works stand as mute testament to the power of a vision and remember, without vision, we are blind and will wander aimlessly as a civilization.

Rick

[bulkyorled]

My dad just missed most of the I-5 through Burbank being built but he remembers the I210 being built. To me that's a little strange since its been here my whole life and its used all day everyday 24/7/365. Just any form of transportation here there's rapid change. If you're familiar with the San Fer. Valley then you'd know there was rotten train tracks up Chandler Blvd and parts of Oxnard Street and now theres a massive busway and bikeway that didn't exist 5 years ago and the idea of it didnt even exist 20 years ago. Someday someone will think its always been around just like how i view the freeways here. Thats the best comparison i have haha Or even the Gold Line and other trains that didn't exist.
I always remember when i was a kiddie about 10 years ago them saying "WE NEED TO BRING BACK THE ELECTRIC TRAIN TO LA" and everyone whined about how long it would take to do it. Well here it is now, and it goes everywhere and people use it and its great!

That gives me hope for the future. People bash younger generations all the time no matter how old anyone is and they say theres no hope but we got this far didn't we?

[nexus73]

Take this letter that I give you, take it sonny, hold it high.  You won't understand a word that's in it but you'll write it all again before you die.  That's from the Queen song "From Father To Son".  Generations are a constant and as one passes away, a new group of old folks comes along and so does a new group of young folks.  Despite the changing of the guard, the generational messages remain the same.

I don't bash the young, I cherish them.  When we run out of younger generations, we'll run out of people after all...LOL!  To me, you're quite the find Bulky.  I like to say it only took one man to invent the light bulb that billions have enjoyed and gotten good use from.  You might be the one who does something so special that it benefits all of mankind.  Even if all you do is better one person's life, that's still a gain and incremental gains over time do as well as the Big Leaps forward. 

There's always hope when there's one candle burning in the darkness.  You strike me as a pretty good candle Bulky and I hope you bring an ever-increasing light as the decades pass by!

Rick

[bulkyorled]

Despite the changing of the guard, the generational messages remain the same.

What's the message? Don't fuck it up? Haha 

But I'm glad i'm so special to everyone! haha It makes me feel wanted here which is good cause I enjoy talking about all the stuff I've talked about here and sharing my finds and interests with people who've got the same things going on.