CA 178S

[Max Rockatansky]

24th Street was added to the State Highway System in 1934 when Legislative Route Number 58 was realigned in downtown Bakersfield.  24th Street would be assigned as part of California State Route 178 when the Sign Route System was designated during August 1934.  As part of the 1964 State Highway Renumbering California State Route 178 and California State Route 58 would begin a brief multiplex from Golden State Avenue west through downtown to US Route 99.  The initial segment of the 178 freeway downtown would open east from N Street during 1966.  The initial segment of the California State Route178 freeway retained the original alignment along 24th Street in addition to a frontage road from 23rd Street as a spur.  The purpose of the spur is to provide continuous connectivity from mainline California State Route 178 and California State Route 204 at Golden State Avenue. 

https://www.gribblenation.org/2024/05/california-state-route-178-spur-on-24th.html?m=1

[mrsman]

This was an interesting read and a good development of the history of the surface street routings in the area.

With the completion of the Westside Connector, it seems like it is a good idea to provide better signage in this area to highlight the different routings used to get between 178, 99, and 58 and connecting these highways to Downtown Bakersfield. 

Of course, when really reading one of these articles, not only do I look at the wonderful maps provided in the article, but I also imagine the imapact based on today's routing on google maps. 

Some of my observations:

The pre-freeway routing of US 466 paralleled the old S.P. railroad through town.  [A nice nod to this is a small street named Espee parallel to the railroad to this day.]  Edison - Sumner - Golden State

19th and Chester is pretty much the heart of Downtown.  So it made sense that the oldest routings of US 99 and LRN 58 intersected there.

Baker Street, which formed part of the routing for 178 between Niles and 19th, goes through an area known as Old Town Kern.  It seems that originally the east-west streets (but at an angle to the normal grid) were alphabetical and generally had place names of cities or counties in Cal.:  Alpine, Butte, Chico.  Oddly, it seems that certain streets were renamed F?? to 18th, most of Grove to 19th, H?? to 21st, I?? to Sumner, and then the alphabetic pattern resumes from Jackson to Quincy.

The local authorities should really improve some of the signage here to help make better connections and redirect traffic accordingly.  In some cases some of the signage is already here, but it definitely needs improvement to guide traffic around surface streets and turning. Bigger signage and more use of control cities and cardinal directions.

178 W to 99 N (and 99 S to 178 E): signage should direct to use 204 as the main connector

The acute angle moves between 178 and 204 can make use of Q St or Union Ave (and should be signed).

178 W to 58 W (and 58 E to 178 E).  This movement used to be a simple movement of heading straight on Rosedale and joining 24th.  Now, the movement needs appropriate signage.  Using Mohawk and Rosedale is probably a good alternate.  Truxton seems like a surprisingly good arterial even though it runs along the edge of Downtown, it does not have too many traffic signals and is very well positioned to lead traffic to 58.  Perhaps Truxton to L?

178 W to 99 S (and 99 N to 178 E).  This movement is not affected by the Westside Connector and it still seems like utilizing 24th street is the best way to go.  There could be an encouragement to use the 58 freeway and perhaps one of the eastern arterials like Mount Vernon as a connector.

99S to 58 W (and 58 E to 99 N).  This was discussed in other threads, but perhaps signage using Mohawk/Rosedale or Mohawk/California or some usage of Truxton.

Again, better signage is definitely needed to provide routing recommendations to make the missing connections.