This morning I was listening to the radio as I drove along and wondering why, in southern California, they even bother to give a weather report-- it's always "Warm and sunny" except maybe once a month (when everyone gets into crashes because of "slippery roads", apparently).
Luckily I didn't have far to go, though, because for the first time I heard for myself the much-dreaded words "Sig alert." A Sig alert means really bad news on Los Angeles highways. If you are driving on that road, get out your book!
This morning, commuters were warned that the normal traffic, which is already horrendous, would be made worse by the indefinite closing of three lanes on the freeway; a short stretch of road was taking an hour and ten minutes to navigate (much like going ten blocks at rush hour on the boulevard Magenta, the main route from the airport into Paris, after our beloved mayor Delanoë deliberately chose to snarl the city streets and make it one lane wide).
"Sig alert" sounds like a bureaucratic acronym, so I was cheered to see it comes from a real person's name. "Sig" Sigmon had the idea of having police inform radio stations regularly of major problems on the roads, so that drivers could take steps to avoid the jams. (See "Take Fountain"!)
Thank God for the Thomas Guide! I don't understand why more cities don't implement that idea. It's the one thing I tell every new to LA transplant to buy immediately.
Posted by: Erin | 25 April 2007 at 21:18
speaking of driving on I10.... http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-8/1177481389124760.xml&coll=1
Posted by: lofrance | 26 April 2007 at 07:07