(essay)

Did you ever hear any songs mentioning ‘driving’, ‘riding’, ‘cruising’ or ‘flying down 405’? If so, you most probably imagined something like this: hot summer air, blazing sun, huge palm trees along the golden coast of the Pacific Ocean, bright-colored convertible (because what else would you drive in Los Angeles?), salty breeze blowing through your hair… Though, you might experience this on some roads, for example, driving through Malibu on Pacific Coast Highway, but definitely not on the 405-freeway.

The Interstate 405 is a bypass auxiliary route of Interstate-5, which is also referred to as the San Diego Freeway. I-405 starts as a branch of I-5 in San Fernando, on the north to Los Angeles, and goes south almost parallel to I-5. The freeway passes Santa Monica, LAX airport, Inglewood, Carson and flows back into I-5 in Irvine. A 72-miles route (116 km), just like a real artery, pulses with megapolis’ life and allows you to cross the entire Los Angeles County in less than 1,5 hours. But in reality, you’d be extremely lucky to do so in at least 3 hours.

Even though I-405 doesn’t cross the most crowded areas in LA County, it is crowned as the busiest and most congested freeway in the United States. The silly jokes about traffic speed being either 4mph or 5mph, ‘carmageddon’ and ‘carpocalypse’ are known nation-wide. Despite posted 65mph speed limit, your average speed may be about 40-45mph on a good day. Also, the existence of ‘carpool lanes’ (specifically for high-occupancy vehicles) and paid express lanes does not noticeably help the situation.

It’s safe to conclude, that all these lyrics about ‘flying down 405’ are just imaginary scenarios. Your authentic experience of I-405 would probably include irritation and exhaustion from insufferable traffic jams, constant roaring and beeping of vehicles, rude and annoying Tesla-drivers, occasional bumps and potholes on the road and giant airplanes flying right over your head on their way to land in LAX. Though, this scene does not look delightful and appealing, there is something inexplicable and romantic about this freeway. And locals know it. Probably, that’s the reason why they right so many songs about it.