Big Ol' Clusters

All of us have them: intersections that are headaches at best, total cluster effs at worst. I sat at one bad one today and it inspired me to write this right here, right now.

It also reminded me to put the other cluster eff I hit up much more routinely.

The first, from earlier today, was the intersection of Vermont, Anaheim, Gaffey, and Rancho Palos Verdes North:

Vermont is coming down from the North while Anaheim cuts diagonal through where Vermont splits off into RPV North on the left and Gaffey to the right. It makes much more sense from above. I was heading south on Vermont, trying to turn left onto Anaheim, about to head off the right side of the square.

Every direction has it's own light, and except for my left turn light, they all take their precious time. These streets are probably more iconic for LA proper than the picture I'll show next. Vermont travels down all the way from the west side of downtown LA to this terminus at the base of the Palos Verdes Peninsula over 23 miles later. Gaffey is the main street of San Pedro, a former-beach-current-port town in LA county. Pedro has its own feel and identity and tiny beachy town sense-of-self, and fosters a certain independence that betrays the truth: its subjugation to and annexation by LA when the larger town needed to claim the Port. (The Southern California Port(s) of the US are actually two bureaucratic entities: the Port of Long Beach (which is bigger) and the Port of LA (which used to be San Pedro?) and together the industrial blight is something special.)

Rancho Palos Verdes Drive is the main, curving thoroughfare of the ritzy peninsula, here named North, but also having a West designation as well. Anaheim is one of lower Long Beach's main streets and ends to the west off screen quickly.

If you ever find yourself driving through this area...um...no advice, just...sucks, man...

The other drive I happen to head through more often, as it is in Long Beach proper, and is where Clark, traveling south, intersects Stearns, heading east/west. The only issue is the Los Coyotes Diagonal, a large east-side Long Beach route, pretty much bisects their intersection:

They eventually altered Stearns to curve a little. Like the previous intersection, this one makes more sense from above. And, like the previous intersection, each direction gets its own light.

At least this intersection's lights are pretty decent. I'm usually driving south on Clark, hoping to breeze through the light.