District 12 Shenanigans

[Occidental Tourist]

I have previously commented upon the incorrect HOV lane sign on the 91 West approaching the 5 Freeway.  This erroneous sign fools carpoolers into believing they have to merge back over four lanes of general flow traffic to access the 5 North, even though there is a direct HOV-to-HOV interchange ahead.  I was witness this morning to another confused driver once again making a frantic series of unnecessary lane changes that interrupted traffic in order to make the 5 North offramp.



We're approaching the 20th anniversary of the original installation of this erroneous sign, and it has even been replaced recently with a new retroreflective sign with the same error.  In light of the obstinance/cluelessness of District 12, I thought I'd highlight some of their more egregious errors throughout Orange County.

55 South before Katella:
This one is my favorite.  Prior to 1997, the current home of the Angels was named Anaheim Stadium.  A sign on the 55 directed motorists to take the Katella Ave. exit to reach the stadium.  Since 1997, the stadium has undergone two name changes, first to Edison International Field, and then to its current name, Angel Stadium.  Yet two sign changes since 1997 have stubbornly hung on to the old name, including the recent retroreflective installation below.



55 South before the 73 South:
Another thread recently addressed the disparity between Caltrans districts about the use of "Junction/Jct"  to sign freeway interchanges.  District 12 uses "Junction/Jct"  sparingly, but here's a recent sign replacement on the 55 South approaching the 73 interchange that kept the "Junction"  but lost the highway shield.  As an added bonus, the sign also fails to acknowledge that the only movement is to the 73 South, as there is no direct interchange to the 73 North, although, admittedly, this is a holdover from the original installation.



405 North at the 55:
In the early 2000's, the 405/55 interchange was massively reconstructed to include direct HOV-to-HOV interchanges for certain movements and add collector/distributor lanes to reduce weaving and congestion.  Part of this reconstruction included creating a long exit ramp that combined the exits for South Coast Drive, Harbor Blvd, and Fairview Road into one long collector/distributor ramp, with only one exit to access all three.

Following the construction, the then-existing button-copy advance sign was greened-out to add replacement mileage indications showing that the exits for the three streets, which used to be sequential, were now the same distance away because they had been combined into one exit.  The recent retroreflective replacement sign blindly copies the old greenout (rather than being modified to acknowledge that the three streets are now a single exit) with the added bonus of the missing "Road"  after the "Fairview" .



55 North at the 91:
In the late 1980's, somebody in District 12 got it in their head that neither "Beach Cities"  nor "Long Beach"  were proper control cities for the 91 West.  So when new signs went up, "Los Angeles"  became the new control city.  Later, in the early 2000's, somebody else got it in their head that Riverside wasn't a sufficient control city for the 55 North.  So they greened out the current signs to add Anaheim as a control city alongside Riverside.  The logical result of this is the following unhelpful information at the junction of the 55 North and 91.  If you want to get to Disneyland, the Anaheim Civic Center, or the majority of City of Anaheim, you shouldn't follow the sign that actually says "Anaheim" .  Follow the one that says "Los Angeles" .



This is just a small sampling of some of the awful signs being (re)installed for the long-haul in District 12.  Let me know what your favorites are.  I didn't get an opportunity to touch upon at all the many errors present in signs in South OC, so folks who drive in South County should chime in.

[SeriesE]

The CA-55 N interchange with CA-73 is also oddly numbered as Exit 7B (CA-73 N) and Exit 7A (CA-73 S) despite the fact that there's only one split from the mainline.

[sparker]

While Anaheim is a strangely laid-out city, occupying a "stripe" from east to west across most of Orange County (if not for La Palma, it would traverse the entire county), the inclusion of Anaheim as a control city on CA 91 east from NB CA 55 is ludicrous; at best Anaheim should be mentioned in a roadside BGS as an auxiliary destination for CA 91 WEST, not EAST.  My folks lived in Anaheim Hills east of Imperial Highway for several years in the '90's; at that time the control cities for 91 from 55 were east: Riverside and west: Los Angeles.  I always thought that westbound 91 signage, at least from I-15 west, should include Anaheim as a control city at least as far as CA 57 (essentially on the Anaheim/Fullerton city line at that point).  It's laughably sad that when they did finally include Anaheim on the signage, they essentially got it backwards (yeah, technically Anaheim Hills is part of Anaheim, but certainly not anywhere near the city center or its main tourist destinations).   

[Occidental Tourist]

While Anaheim is a strangely laid-out city, occupying a "stripe" from east to west across most of Orange County (if not for La Palma, it would traverse the entire county), the inclusion of Anaheim as a control city on CA 91 east from NB CA 55 is ludicrous; at best Anaheim should be mentioned in a roadside BGS as an auxiliary destination for CA 91 WEST, not EAST.  My folks lived in Anaheim Hills east of Imperial Highway for several years in the '90's; at that time the control cities for 91 from 55 were east: Riverside and west: Los Angeles.  I always thought that westbound 91 signage, at least from I-15 west, should include Anaheim as a control city at least as far as CA 57 (essentially on the Anaheim/Fullerton city line at that point).  It's laughably sad that when they did finally include Anaheim on the signage, they essentially got it backwards (yeah, technically Anaheim Hills is part of Anaheim, but certainly not anywhere near the city center or its main tourist destinations).   

Completely agree.

[mrsman]

While Anaheim is a strangely laid-out city, occupying a "stripe" from east to west across most of Orange County (if not for La Palma, it would traverse the entire county), the inclusion of Anaheim as a control city on CA 91 east from NB CA 55 is ludicrous; at best Anaheim should be mentioned in a roadside BGS as an auxiliary destination for CA 91 WEST, not EAST.  My folks lived in Anaheim Hills east of Imperial Highway for several years in the '90's; at that time the control cities for 91 from 55 were east: Riverside and west: Los Angeles.  I always thought that westbound 91 signage, at least from I-15 west, should include Anaheim as a control city at least as far as CA 57 (essentially on the Anaheim/Fullerton city line at that point).  It's laughably sad that when they did finally include Anaheim on the signage, they essentially got it backwards (yeah, technically Anaheim Hills is part of Anaheim, but certainly not anywhere near the city center or its main tourist destinations).   

Completely agree.

And I would like to add that from the Inland Empire (I-15 and I-215) the control city for 91 westbound should be Anaheim as well, instead of the more unspecific Beach Cities.  Within OC, LA is a fine control city until you reach I-5.

55 needs a good NB control.  I say Yorba Linda makes more sense than Anaheim, especially at the I-5 interchange where staying on 55 takes you further from Angels Stadium and Disneyland.

[sparker]

55 needs a good NB control.  I say Yorba Linda makes more sense than Anaheim, especially at the I-5 interchange where staying on 55 takes you further from Angels Stadium and Disneyland.

The problem with using Yorba Linda as a NB CA 55 control is that there is no direct way of getting there from either 55 or 91.  The CA 90 approach signage on 91 at the Imperial Highway interchange (in both directions) was deleted about 2007; there is no visible state-highway access from CA 91 north to Yorba Linda.

If it were up to me, the only NB control should be CA 91 (as in "North CA 55 to CA 91), at least north of CA 22.  Once approaching CA 91, the control cities of Anaheim/Los Angeles (west) and Corona/Riverside (east) would be appropriate (Corona's big enough -- and a major traffic dispersal point -- to warrant a control-city mention at this time).