This story was also broadcast on the KTLA Morning News. In the televised story, they interviewed some guy who whined "I wish they'd do something about it" (referring to the traffic congestion on SoCal freeways). Well, "they" aren't gonna do JACK about it for at least 10 years, so if you want a solution you'll need to take matters into your own hands. MOVE from your isolated, accessible-only-by-automobile suburban sprawl home and find a place close to where you work or, if your office is near a station, move close to a public transit stop. Sitting there whining while you're stuck in gridlock isn't going to help you.
In north Orange County, Interstate 5 is a 10-lane superhighway, with the broad shoulders, terra-cotta sound walls and attractive landscaping one might expect along California's main north-south artery.
Just short of Los Angeles County, however, the artery clogs. It narrows to six lanes, three each way, and sheds its modern features, becoming a 1950s-vintage roadway.
Right about there, many northbound motorists get mad.
"The commute out of Orange County is impossible," fumed Paul Samarin, a Newport Beach lawyer, while gbutting up near his home in Norwalk. "It bottlenecks and it stops."
Drivers pay the price in time and frustration.
According to plans, commuters will have to wait until 2016 to see what is predicted to be a $1.4-billion expansion from the Orange County line through the L.A. County cities of La Mirada, Norwalk, Santa Fe Springs and part of Downey to the junction with the 605 Freeway.
