The Los Angeles Freeway Glossary

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

If are planning on visiting or moving to the Los Angeles area you will need to know the special code names they use. Other southlanders can add their own…

Golden State Freeway - The 5 Interstate heading north, generally just north of downtown.

Santa Ana Freeway - The 5 Interstate heading south.

Hollywood Freeway - The 170

Ventura Freeway - The 101 starting in the valley pretty much where it branches off of the 134.

San Bernardino Freeway The 10 Freeway east of downtown.

Santa Monica Freeway - 10 Freeway West of downtown

San Diego Freeway - 405 Freeway South

The Foothill - 210 Freeway

Grapevine - I need a little help on this one, is it the 5 Freeway as it winds it’s way through the San Gabriel Mountains in Northern L.A. County?

The Eastern Interchange - The confluence east of downtown LA of the 60, the 5, the 10, and the 101.

Long Beach Freeway - the 710 heading south

Harbor Freeway - 110 south of downtown

Pasadena Freeway - 110 North

Glendale Freeway - The 2

Four Level - Downtown where the 101 and 110 meet

Imperial Freeway - The 105 going to the airport.

Ronald Reagan Freeway - I actuallly think this is the official name of the 118. Maybe because the Ronald Reagan library is just off the 118.

Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) - The 1, usually near Malibu and Sanata Monica.

OK, what am I missing (a lot I know).

2

Actually, I’ve always referred to the 405 in either direction as the San Diego Freeway. Since neither direction gets anywhere near San Diego, it makes just as much sense either way.

Let’s see, we also have the Artesia Freeway, which is the 91 before it gets east of the LA County line. And the Garden Grove Freeway, which is the 22.

Then the El Toro Y, the spot where the 5 and 405 meet in south Orange County, and the Orange Crush, where the 5, 55, and 22 merge, split, and merge again. You should try to avoid both these places.

PCH gets used for the entire length of the 1, not just the Malibu area. What, do you live in the Valley or something?

3

The Ventura Freeway applies to both US Hwy 101 and CA-134. South of the 101-134-170 junction, the 101 is called the Hollywood Freeway; north (and west) of it, the 101 is called the Ventura Freeway. North of that same point, CA-170 is called the Hollywood Freeway. CA-134 is called the Ventura Freeway west of Pasadena. So, both the Hollywood and Ventura Freeways have two different numbers, and US 101 has two different names. Confusing, ain’t it?

You also skipped the Orange Freeway (CA-57) and the Newport Freeway (CA-55).

The Grapevine is the name for Interstate 5 north of Gorman.

The intersection of CA-60, US 101, I-5, and I-10 is called the East L.A. (or East-Delay) Interchange.

4

I lived in LA for over a decade, and I virtually never heard anyone refer to the highways by name, except for radio traffic reporters. The numbers are more accurate and informative.

BTW, when I moved back to the midwest, people were really freaked out when I referred to “surface streets.” People didn’t quite get the idea of freeway vs. surface.

Oh, and you forgot one term that IS useful: The Slot. I’ll leave the non-Californians to guess at that one.

5

In fact, the “Grapevine” is also the old name for the old surface street, Highway 99, as it used to run between LA and Bakersfield. (We were on it long before the freeway was built.) I-5 runs northwest out of Los Angeles County, roughly north-northwest through the heart of California. I-280 heads west, by way of Livermore, to San Francisco.
The 105 is officially the Glenn Anderson Freeway; at least it’s so named on the Thomas Guide pages. The Metro Green Line runs between the west- and east-bound traffic lanes, from the overpass over Aviation Boulevard (near LAX) to the east end of the freeway; the eastern terminus of the Green Line is right next to the connection of I-105 with the “605” or San Gabriel Freeway, which runs north-south (east of the 710) and connects with the 405 at its southern end, near the boundary between Long Beach and Seal Beach.
Pacific Coast Highway is also the name given to Sepulveda Boulevard, running south in Hermosa Beach (from Manhattan Beach, which calls the street Sepulveda) to Redondo Beach to Harbor City to Long Beach to Orange County, along the coast (near the interchange of the 405 and 605) into San Diego County.

6

Um… actually you’ll find that Sepulveda and PCH are two entirely seperate streets, though they do merge once or twice. Once you drive south through the glory that is Wilmington, just past the shipyards, you’ll find that entering Long Beach, Sepulveda changes names to Willow. PCH, on the other hand, has been running merrily along, much closer to the coast, and continues south to about Dana Point.

7

I used to work in the post office in Manhattan Beach, which is still at 10th and Sepulveda in Manhattan Beach. A look at the Thomas Guide or any other local street map (or city maps, if you care to go to that trouble) will show that, for seven blocks or so, PCH is the boundary between Hermosa Beach (west side) and Manhattan Beach (east side); so it is called Pacific Coast Highway on one side and Sepulveda Boulevard on the other side. The house numbering is different, too, and for several blocks the numbers increase on the Hermosa side going north and on the Manhattan side going south. South of Artesia Boulevard, the street is known as Pacific Coast Highway as it runs first south, then roughly southeast, clear out of Los Angeles County, into Orange County at Seal Beach.
The street known as Sepulveda in the South Bay has no connection with the other Sepulveda, though it is possible, of course, to drive from one to the other. The Torrance Sepulveda Boulevard starts as Camino Real in Redondo Beach, running southeast through south RB. When it runs into Torrance, the name changes to Sepulveda Boulevard, and it continues as such in Harbor City and Carson. When it crosses into Long Beach the name does, as noted, change to Willow. The closest approach of one Sepulveda (Manhattan Beach) to the other (Torrance) is several miles. Again, the Thomas Guide (printed since 1915, and even referred to by Cecil himself) will verify this.

8

I always wonder why you guys put the in front of Hwy numbers. As in: “Take the 5 to the 405” vs. “Take I5 to 405”

Really I have always wondered that.

9

Truly a great mystery of life. I can’t imagine anyone saying, “Take the Elm and go north on the Main.”