🛣 Updates to California Highways – July 2020 – The Site Design Reveal

[cahwyguy]

It's finally here. The site rework. As you can see if you visit www.cahighways.org, the major changes are the introduction of new menu navigation and the elimination of the use of the tables for headers and footers, which should improve the look of the site on mobile devices. There is a new overall site navigation bar; there is also a floating menu on each page that provides the same access. The floating menu is handy because it remains visible even if you have scrolled down deep into a page. I have also done some preliminary work to make images autosize on smaller screens, although some menus will still require some horizonal scrolling. I'm still working on that.

The big change is that the site has been moved to have one route per page, with improved navigation within the page for each route (i.e., there is an internal page navigation menu). This should really make a big difference on the large route pages such as Route 1, US 101, and such. It will also make a difference for those unlucky group pages that had multiple large files, such as the groups that had Route 1 and I-5, or Route 99 and US 101. They all now have their individual pages. For those of you who linked into the route pages, don't fret. The old files are still there so your links will work, but have been changed to use Javascript that automatically redirects to the right page. You shouldn't need to change anything. If you refer to something out of the range of the file, you should end up on Route 404. Please let me know of any problems.

I hopefully fixed any problems that occurred when "Route"  (or other equivalents such as US, BR, CR, etc.) was part of an ALT or TITLE attribute of an IMG, or when it was in an A tag (i.e., I prevented the normal mechanism that converts such references from working). I also (hopefully) prevented translation when US- or I- appears in the HREF or SRC attribute. Hopefully, this didn't break anything, but if you find problems, let me know.

While I was at it, I finally fixed the variant spelling of "milage"  to "mileage" . I insisted "milage"  was correct all the way back in April 1998, but I decided to bow to convention.

While doing the update pass, I named the segments in all the routes, and did a bit of link updating. I still need to go through all the regional resource link pages and confirm that links are still good. If you maintain a regional highway hobbyist (i.e., state, province, or country) page, please make sure I have the link. I've also updated the statistics pages – most notably including some 2018 traffic count information.

Major changes were made in how the list of named highways was generated. Previously, I had to hand maintain that table. The table is now generated from information in the individual highway pages. As a side effect of this, unique named anchors are generated for each name, and the link to the route in the name table goes directly to the name (something I've wanted to do for years). The only drawbacks of this is that (a) sometimes a route gets listed twice, because the same name appears in multiple segments; (b) I can no longer include business routes in the names list, so Business Route 80 is listed as Route 51 (sorry, Cap City Freeway); and (c) some variants of names might get collapsed. As before, let me know of any problems that I might not have caught.

As always, a big ✘ to Caltrans and their accessibility rework, which broke almost every link I had into their site. I was able to rediscover and relink most of the resources. If you identify other Caltrans links that require correction, let me know. As always, I'll be glad to host un-remediated Caltrans resources to make things available pending remediation.

As I note in the sources, special credit goes to Steve Sobol, who helped me figure out the CSS tricks that are at the heart of the 2020 reworking of the site. Steve is a road scholar of long standing, but more than that, a generally good person who has been there to help me with numerous computer issues. If you need computer help, or a web site, or other consulting, I highly recommend him.

Actually highway content changes are light, and primarily in response to email. As a reminder, I'm looking for photographs of highway or structure naming signs that are not currently present in the route pages; if you find one, please send it to webmaster@cahighways.org. In this go around, I added information and made updates based my research(1) and information from Frank Aros(2), Karen Davis(3), Tom Fearer(4), Occidental Tourist on AARoads(5) to the following routes: Route 13(2), Route 17(2), US 80(3), Route 91(2), US 99(3), Route 145(4), Route 149(4), Route 245(4), Route 269(4), I-605(5). I also added some information related to trail names and the "Southern Cause" , based on information provided by Jill Livingston and the LA Times article regarding a Jefferson Davis Highway historical monument.

ETA: Now that I can see it on a phone, the text is still too small. If anyone can suggest the correct CSS for the body tag to fix this, please let me know.

ETA2: I've noticed it works better on a phone in landscape orientation. Still haven't figured out the tricks to making portrait orientation look good. I tried a META VIEWPORT, but that did nothing.

Daniel

[Max Rockatansky]

I like the one highway per page, that saves a bunch of time on scrolling.  Question though, any update coming to the navigation page?  Right now it still shows ranges (example; 1-8).

[cahwyguy]

I like the one highway per page, that saves a bunch of time on scrolling.  Question though, any update coming to the navigation page?  Right now it still shows ranges (example; 1-8).

Which navigation page is that? If it is hwystart.html, you can delete it. The other old 001-008 style pages should redirect -- clear your cache and see what happens.

[Max Rockatansky]

I like the one highway per page, that saves a bunch of time on scrolling.  Question though, any update coming to the navigation page?  Right now it still shows ranges (example; 1-8).

Which navigation page is that? If it is hwystart.html, you can delete it. The other old 001-008 style pages should redirect -- clear your cache and see what happens.

Here is what I get when I go to the pop up menu and select State Highways from the site navigation sub-menu:

https://www.cahighways.org/state.html

[cahwyguy]

I like the one highway per page, that saves a bunch of time on scrolling.  Question though, any update coming to the navigation page?  Right now it still shows ranges (example; 1-8).

Which navigation page is that? If it is hwystart.html, you can delete it. The other old 001-008 style pages should redirect -- clear your cache and see what happens.

Here is what I get when I go to the pop up menu and select State Highways from the site navigation sub-menu:

https://www.cahighways.org/state.html

Looking at that, I see the right page (you should see 10 routes per row). You may need to clear your cache; the old one could still be cached.

[ClassicHasClass]

I like the new organization of route numbers very much.  The moving menu button at the top right is a little distracting, though.

[cahwyguy]

I like the new organization of route numbers very much.  The moving menu button at the top right is a little distracting, though.

I wanted to keep the ability to have a menu on the screen so you could move around easier in the larger pages, where the top menu scrolled off. I could see that being even more important on a mobile device, where there is no easy "go to the top of the page" like Ctl-Home. I've found that you start ignoring it, given that I kept the button small. Hopefully, things are easier to navigate: note that you can go to any of the header sections, or structuring sections, in a route page directly now, and if you go to the name index and click on a route, it takes you directly to where that name was defined.

Do please check that I got the links to your pages right. You allowed me to add back in Hobbyist pages for Australia and Italy.

[stevashe]

As always, I'll be glad to host un-remediated Caltrans resources to make things available pending remediation.

I actually went ahead and made my own map of the HOV systems in Northern and Southern California since those files haven't yet been remediated and was planning to post it on the forum after I check it over for errors, you're more than welcome to put it on your website if you wish once I post it here.

I did actually have Caltrans' HOV maps downloaded at one point but unfortunately I must have deleted them at some point since I can't find them anymore. Though, they were a bit out of date anyway so I was planning to make my own version at some point regardless.

[cahwyguy]

As always, I'll be glad to host un-remediated Caltrans resources to make things available pending remediation.

I actually went ahead and made my own map of the HOV systems in Northern and Southern California since those files haven't yet been remediated and was planning to post it on the forum after I check it over for errors, you're more than welcome to put it on your website if you wish once I post it here.

I did actually have Caltrans' HOV maps downloaded at one point but unfortunately I must have deleted them at some point since I can't find them anymore. Though, they were a bit out of date anyway so I was planning to make my own version at some point regardless.

Sure, with your permission (and giving you appropriate credit) I'll be glad to post it. Just let me know where you think the best place would be. It's not an individual highway, so it doesn't fit there. Could we craft a story around it for the maps page -- perhaps a series of maps showing the growth of the HOV systems, and how they have changed over time? That could actually be an interesting topic, as most folks have forgotten the history of the lanes in the 1970s on the 10 and 405 (I still remember the Conrad cartoon "The Diamond Lane / Is Working Well / If you don't like it / Go to .... / Caltrans"). There's also the relationship to the El Monte Busway, which was also the basis for the first 3 passenger diamond lane. But we've seen the lanes grow from experiments, to a spotty standard, to an integrated network, and now we're seeing them transmorph into HOT lanes.

So, yeah, if we can figure out where they go, I'll be glad to add them.

[stevashe]

Sure, with your permission (and giving you appropriate credit) I'll be glad to post it. Just let me know where you think the best place would be. It's not an individual highway, so it doesn't fit there. Could we craft a story around it for the maps page -- perhaps a series of maps showing the growth of the HOV systems, and how they have changed over time? That could actually be an interesting topic, as most folks have forgotten the history of the lanes in the 1970s on the 10 and 405 (I still remember the Conrad cartoon "The Diamond Lane / Is Working Well / If you don't like it / Go to .... / Caltrans"). There's also the relationship to the El Monte Busway, which was also the basis for the first 3 passenger diamond lane. But we've seen the lanes grow from experiments, to a spotty standard, to an integrated network, and now we're seeing them transmorph into HOT lanes.

So, yeah, if we can figure out where they go, I'll be glad to add them.

Yeah I think some sort of story about the history of the lanes could work, though admittedly I don't know a ton about the history, apart from reading about the El Monte Busway, which was certainly an interesting case. I'd certainly be willing to help though, especially with drawing up additional maps showing the extent of the HOV system at different times.

[cahwyguy]

You could start a separate thread here to collect information. The Rumsey map collection might show you some of it. More likely, the LA Metro Library and Steve Hymon might have something. Drop me an email, and we can work on this together. We all need projects during this time :-)

I see the following phases, at least for Southern California. I don't know the Bay Area history on this.

1. El Monte Busway
2. The first failures: Lanes on the Santa Monica Freeway and I-405
3. The start of a real system: Opening the Busway to all, other lanes
4. Turning isolated lanes into a network
5. Congestion pricing and HOT lanes.

What I forget is the order that HOV lanes were added, although I might have some maps in my files. You're welcome to coordinate coming to Northridge to look at them. Files are in the garage, so we can distance.  I seem to recall early lanes on I-10, the 91, the 5 in OC, and perhaps the 210. Other lanes came later, particularly those on the 110 and 105. Then it was explosive growth.

Daniel

[heynow415]

You could start a separate thread here to collect information. The Rumsey map collection might show you some of it. More likely, the LA Metro Library and Steve Hymon might have something. Drop me an email, and we can work on this together. We all need projects during this time :-)

I see the following phases, at least for Southern California. I don't know the Bay Area history on this.

1. El Monte Busway
2. The first failures: Lanes on the Santa Monica Freeway and I-405
3. The start of a real system: Opening the Busway to all, other lanes
4. Turning isolated lanes into a network
5. Congestion pricing and HOT lanes.

What I forget is the order that HOV lanes were added, although I might have some maps in my files. You're welcome to coordinate coming to Northridge to look at them. Files are in the garage, so we can distance.  I seem to recall early lanes on I-10, the 91, the 5 in OC, and perhaps the 210. Other lanes came later, particularly those on the 110 and 105. Then it was explosive growth.

Daniel

For the Bay Area, I don't recall when the toll bridges started having HOV lanes (and free tolls) but starting circa 1977 there were short-lived 24-hour HOV lanes on 580 just west of 680 to Palomares Canyon Road.  They were built as part of the first phase of converting the old US 50 alignment through Dublin Canyon to 238 in Castro Valley to modern standards.  It was constructed with a full eight lanes of concrete pavement (nine if you count the westbound climbing lane to the top of the grade) and included a wide median reservation for a future BART extension.  However, an asphalt "no drive" buffer was laid on top of lane #2 with lane #1 becoming the HOV lane separated from the mixed flow lanes with the large buffer.  My recollection is that it was Caltrans' response to a Sierra Club lawsuit that building an eight lane freeway through the canyon was sprawl inducing. 

The HOV lanes and asphalt buffers were removed in the early 80's resulting the current all-mixed-flow arrangement.  Given the amount of urbanization in the Tri Valley at the time, the lanes were not heavily used and constantly ridiculed, especially since they only went halfway through the canyon.   The section between Palomares Canyon Road and Castro Valley wasn't reconstructed until the late 80's, well after the phase 1 experiment was removed.

[Occidental Tourist]

You could start a separate thread here to collect information. The Rumsey map collection might show you some of it. More likely, the LA Metro Library and Steve Hymon might have something. Drop me an email, and we can work on this together. We all need projects during this time :-)

I see the following phases, at least for Southern California. I don't know the Bay Area history on this.

1. El Monte Busway
2. The first failures: Lanes on the Santa Monica Freeway and I-405
3. The start of a real system: Opening the Busway to all, other lanes
4. Turning isolated lanes into a network
5. Congestion pricing and HOT lanes.

What I forget is the order that HOV lanes were added, although I might have some maps in my files. You're welcome to coordinate coming to Northridge to look at them. Files are in the garage, so we can distance.  I seem to recall early lanes on I-10, the 91, the 5 in OC, and perhaps the 210. Other lanes came later, particularly those on the 110 and 105. Then it was explosive growth.

Daniel

My recollection is that the 55 had the first carpool lanes in OC.  The 5 didn't get them until they did the major widenings north and south of the Crush.

[ClassicHasClass]

Do please check that I got the links to your pages right.

They look great, thank you! I'm also ensuring any route links I have go to the new pages.