The Los Angeles Times had an amusing story this weekend about how a stretch of the 101 in between Tarzana and Woodland Hills is packed with signs for nearby public and private universities--in a seven-mile stretch there are 36 signs for schools. Caltrans, the state agency that decides who gets freeway signs, says all secondary schools with more than 1,000 full- or part-time students are eligible for the publicity if they fork over $7,500 for manufacturing of the signs and installation. Even the Hypnosis Motivation Institute gets some notice on the packed freeway, with four signs near the Reseda Boulevard exit. What's ironic is that there are still no signs on the 10 for the Expo Line, the DTLA-to-Culver City light rail that runs parallel to the freeway. Since most people sitting on a packed freeway would be amenable to suggestions for alternatives, signs directing people to transit stations seem like a no-brainer--especially since the 101 already has signs for Red Line stations (see image)--but it's just never that simple.
Caltrans's head of media relations, Lauren Wonder, told us this in early May: "Our traffic engineers did not find any request for signs [from Metro]. The Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority would request signage during its project development process and/or through a permit application to Caltrans. You might want to check with Metro about whether signs were placed on city streets. If we place signs on freeways and there are no directional signs on city streets, then it would be counterproductive."
Since some of the freeway exits spill out right near the train stations--like Culver City's--we think people could figure it out. Anyway, we followed up with Metro earlier this month and haven't heard back. Well, at least people know which exit to take for hypnotherapy class. Image via RaymondYu
· For L.A.-area colleges, some freeway publicity [LA Times]
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