Arroyo Seco Parkway (SR 110) 75th Anniversary Dec 30, 2015

[andy3175]

Some articles on the 75th anniversary of the Arroyo Seco Parkway (currently SR 110, previously SR 11 and partially US 66):

http://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2015/12/30/45464/happy-75th-birthday-arroyo-seco-parkway/

75 years ago today, December 30, 1940, the first Freeway in the United States opened to cars, changing the way Los Angeles would get around forever.

Nobody, and I mean nobody, would design one like it today. It's curvy and it's swervy. Its entrances and exits are fubsy little five-mile-an-hour kiddie-car ramps.

The median is so narrow you feel you could stick your hand out the car window and high-five the drivers going the other way.

http://laist.com/2015/12/30/arroyo_seco_parkway_birthday.php#photo-1

The Arroyo Seco Parkway, which connects downtown Los Angeles and Pasadena, opened 75 years ago today and is considered by many to be the first freeway in the United States.

Built during the Great Depression, the six-lane freeway first opened to cars on Dec. 30, 1940, and much of the historic roadway has remained largely unchanged since then. And while the narrow and curvy Arroyo Seco Parkway (aka 110 Freeway) may seem quaint and even a bit treacherous now, it was an engineering marvel for its day and set the stage for L.A.'s expansive freeway system.

The freeway–which got its name from the adjacent seasonal river–cut travel time between L.A. and Pasadena from 27 minutes to 12 minutes, according to Metro. Of course, that travel time was based on the 45 mph speed limit set when it opened. It was also a lot less crowded back then–designed to carry 27,000 automobiles a day rather than the more than 122,000 cars it sees today. ...

The historic roadway also has an unusual history. Long before it was built for cars, proposals for the route included a faster route for wagons. In 1897, a proposal for an elevated wooden bicycle path beat out a plan for a parkway. The cycleway for commuters opened on Jan. 1, 1900, and it stretched for several miles, but years later was abandoned and torn down as the Pacific Electric streetcars made the journey easier for more people.

Then in 1924, a plan for the parkway began to take shape in Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. and Harland Bartholomew's landmark Major Street Traffic Plan For Los Angeles, which suggested that a new parkway would provide drivers with a "great deal of incidental recreation and pleasure."  Construction for The Arroyo Seco Parkway then began in the 1930s, after the Automobile Club of Southern California successfully lobbied the state legislature, according to KCET.

http://www.dailynews.com/arts-and-entertainment/20151204/arroyo-seco-parkway-californias-first-freeway-celebrates-75-years

The freeway sports tunnels with Art Deco carvings, giving it a true retro feel, but the storied road doesn't get as much love and attention as say, Route 66 or Pacific Coast Highway. Maybe it's because, in a region literally criss-crossed with freeways, one roadway looks just about like the other. Yet, it is a California Historic Parkway, a federal scenic byway in California and one the American Society of Civil Engineers called a national engineering landmark. ...

Celebrating those few thousands tons of concrete and steel may be hard to embrace, but like most things in Southern California, it's all about location, location, location. Driving along the parkway gives one a sense of history and some beautiful views of the landscape, but there's even more history just off its exits. Some highlights include Elysian Park, considered the oldest public park in Los Angeles; the stone-constructed Lummis Home and Gardens, once home of Charles Lummis, known to many as the father of the Arroyo Seco; the Southwest Museum of the American Indian, the first museum in Los Angeles and one that extols Native Americans and their history; the Heritage Square Museum of Victorian homes, which provides a glimpse of early Southern California life; and the Pasadena Museum of History, which is also a research library and archive encompassing the 1906 Beaux Arts Fenyes Mansion and the Finnish Folk Museum.

Every spring, the Arroyo Seco environs – its history, art and culture – are celebrated with Museums of the Arroyo Day. The next one is set for May 15. The area also is home to many trails for walkers and hikers.

The Arroyo Seco Parkway, once called the Pasadena Freeway (110 Freeway) before the name was changed back in 2010, is considered by many to be the first freeway in the state and in the nation. Spurred on by the Automobile Club of Southern California, which promoted the ideas of rural highways that extended into urban settings, the 8.2-mile parkway paved the way for the rest of the Los Angeles freeway network. Built during the Great Depression, the project employed thousands.

Not all are enamored with its historical design qualities...

http://www.lamag.com/driver/change-coming-beautiful-terrifying-arroyo-seco-parkway/

With curvaceous tunnels, soundwalls covered in picturesque vines, and a route that traverses scenic northeastern L.A., the Arroyo Seco Parkway is one of the loveliest freeways in the West. It's also one of the most dangerous: with hairpin exits and entrances that require drastic acceleration and deceleration, State Route 110 has claimed thousands of lives. Now, some locals have had enough.

A new Change.org petition demands safety improvements for the 75-year-old highway, specifically making the Avenue 43 entrance and exit ramps exclusive on/off lanes, so cars won't be fighting each other like a high-speed game of bumper cars. State senator Kevin de Leon, the recipient of the 600-plus-strong petition, met with locals on Friday and agreed to implement new signs and flashing lights that warn drivers of sudden entrances and exits.

Change.org petition: https://www.change.org/p/kevin-de-leon-safety-on-the-arroyo-seco-parkwaywe-the-undersigned-request-your-immediate-attention-to-the-increasingly-dangerous-situation-at-the-avenue-43-north-and-southbound-exit-and-entry-ramps-on-the-parkway-by-dedicating-the-right-lanes-to-on-o?recruiter=43039805&utm_campaign=signature_receipt&utm_medium=email&utm_source=share_petition