Roads and Traffic

California has a lot of roads. This is a guide to how to identify them, use them, and cope with the traffic encountered on them.

Freeways, State Highways, City Streets, Etc.

Road conditions, cross-traffic, speed limits, etc., depend very strongly on the type of road; the following are the main road types in California:

• Freeways -- these are the large multi-lane, limited access roads corresponding to the British Motorways (but generally with far more frequent exits). Pedestrians, mopeds, and bicycles are usually prohibited (with exceptions on the stretches of some rural freeways where the particular freeway is the only road between two towns). There are no stop signs, stop lights, etc. on freeways; cross traffic is prohibited; and, with few exceptions, the freeways are completely divided. Only emergency stopping or parking is allowed. Speed limits are usually 55 or 65 MPH, with certain parts being 50 MPH (usually bridges, tunnels, and associated approaches); rural freeways often have 70 MPH limits.

Freeways usually come in three types -- Federal (or US) roads like US 101; the Interstate[3] routes like Interstate 80; and State highways like State Route 4 in the Bay Area. To all intents and purposes, all freeways, whether US, State, or Interstate, look the same and have the same rules throughout the state; if the road you're on changes from a highway to a freeway (or vice versa), you will be told this explicitly by a series of roadside signs.

Longer freeways often have rest areas every so often; these usually have restrooms and space to walk your dog or eat lunch, etc. Some also have licensed vans or vending machines selling snacks, but rest areas do not have permanent food stores or cafes, nor is gas available (unlike the British equivalents). Many rest areas also have some sort of historical marker or natural history plaque relating to the surrounding area; these are usually worth reading to get some sort of sense of the country you're driving through (and take note of the signs warning you of the rattlesnakes in the surrounding grass -- these are not jokes or tourist curios...).

Freeways are patrolled by the California Highway Patrol (CHP), both for traffic violations and things like car breakdowns and accidents. Other police have the authority to book you for breaking the traffic laws on freeways passing through their territory, but this is not common.

Many freeways are equipped with road-side emergency phones or call-boxes; these are usually yellow boxes and posts, often with a solar power panel on top. These are for breakdowns and accidents. Emergency call-box spacing and availability varies widely from freeway to freeway, and area to area.

• Highways -- these are usually the larger rural roads, corresponding to the British "A" roads. They come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, and run the gamut from US Highways to State Highways to County Highways. Many of the larger ones (e.g. US 395 in parts of the Owens Valley, or US 50 between Sacramento and Placerville) are freeways in all but name. What distinguishes them from freeways is usually the fact that cross-traffic, stop lights (and signs), and such things are allowed; in many rural areas, the highway is the main street for the towns along it, meaning that speed limits are also wildly variable.

Some highways (or parts of highways, like US 395 again) are well-maintained, multi-lane, divided roads with rest stops every so often; many others are the classic two-lane black-top County Routes, in various states of repair. Some of the larger (US and State) highways have emergency call boxes as described above.

State and federal highways are patrolled by the CHP and (sometimes) local police; county highways are usually patrolled by county sheriff's deputies and local police.

Note: if the above is a bit confusing, remember: all Interstate routes (e.g. I-580 or I-80) are freeways, but not all US or State routes are freeways (most state routes are highways, in fact).

• Parkways and expressways -- in most cases, these are what amount to short urban or suburban highways. Usually multi-laned and semi-divided, they have stop lights, cross traffic, etc., but usually have higher speed limits than the surrounding suburban roads.
  
  

• Urban and suburban roads -- these are just the normal roads in cities and suburbs. Speed limits are usually 25 MPH, very occasionally 30 or 35 MPH.
  
  

• The terms "turnpike" or "pike", though common elsewhere in the US, aren't used here at all, and don't have any particular meaning for locals.

Road Naming & Direction Conventions

Official road naming and marking conventions don't vary much throughout the state; unofficially, though, the way people refer to the various roads do vary a bit.

Officially, Federal freeways and highways are identified with white and black shields, the route number in black on a white shield bordered by black. If you've ever seen the old Route 66 television show, that Route 66 sign is a classic example of this. Federal / US routes are usually identified on maps and in publications in the form "US 101", or the shield with the number in it, or similar. All Interstates are identified with a red, white, and blue shield: white numbering on a blue background, with a red top to the shield (also, the shield is slightly differently-shaped to the US route shields). On maps or in official publications Interstate freeways are usually referred to in the form "I-880" or "Interstate 880", or the number-on-a-shield form. State Routes are identified with a green and white, rounded-triangular shield: white numbering on a green background with white borders. State routes and highways are referred to in a wide variety of ways in maps and publications; many do not use the California state green shield markings but use ovals or squares. County roads and highways are identified in various ways, but virtually all identifications include a letter, e.g. "A17" or "J14". These letters do not seem to correspond to the County name, unfortunately.

With one well-known exception that I'm aware of (Interstate 110 and State Route 110 in the LA region), all US, Interstate and State route numbers are unique within the state -- there is no US 4 or Interstate 4 in California because there is already a State Route 4 (and in the case of the routes 110, they're actually two ends of the same road). This is not true for County routes (there's both an A17 and a J17 in California, in Shasta County and Merced County respectively), nor is it true across the US as a whole -- there are separate Interstate 280s in at least California and New Jersey.

Freeways and highways are usually marked periodically with signs giving the freeway number and general direction; this is particularly common after major interchanges or freeway entrances. The direction given ("North", for example), is the logical direction of the freeway as a whole, not necessarily the direction the freeway seems to be traveling in at that particular location. This can be very confusing if you don't know the ultimate destination of the freeway -- there's a classic spot on Interstate 80 in Berkeley where the signs say that this particular stretch of road is both "I-80 East" and "I-580 West" -- but you're actually driving north at this point... (I-80 is heading north here as the first step on its journey all the way east to New York, while 580 has joined I-80 on its way north for a few miles before splitting again from I-80 and heading west towards the Richmond Bridge and its ultimate destination, San Quentin). This same point holds true for freeway and highway destination and exit signs in general -- if the area you're going to isn't explicitly on the sign, you will need to know which direction the freeway or highway you need to exit to is ultimately going, or the ultimate destination city. This can be very difficult to determine.

[News Flash: as of February 2002, California is finally introducing an exit numbering system, based on distance from the start ofthe freeway. This is actually fairly logical and renders the rest of this paragraph moot -- or will do, once it's widespread. Later News Flash: as of October 2005, these exit number signs are still not up on large stretches of California freeways, especially in the Bay Area -- HR]. Unfortunately California also doesn't have a freeway or highway exit / intersection numbering scheme. Unlike (say) Arizona or Illinois, where it's easy to remember that you need to get off at exit 17, in California you'll need to know ahead of time which major destinations your exit leads to -- and this may not always be obvious from a map, or related to your destination in any way at all.

California also doesn't have a usable milepost system -- the mileposts that do exist typically measure mileage from the nearest county line, which isn't all that useful to most people, and the mileposts are usually small and hard to see.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, larger freeways are usually informally referred to by their number, e.g. "I-80" (pronounced "eye eighty" or "Interstate eighty"), "880" ("eight-eighty"), "101" ("one-oh-one"), "I-5" ("eye-five", or occasionally "Interstate five"), "580" ("five-eighty"), rather than the corresponding freeway names -- "Eastshore Freeway" (I-80 between Bay Bridge and San Pablo Bay), "The Nimitz Freeway", "The Bayshore Freeway", "The Westside Freeway", and "the Macarthur Freeway", respectively. Indeed, you can confuse a lot of Bay Area residents by using the names (how many know the official name for Interstate 680?). On the other hand, Los Angelenos use the names more than the numbers; for example "The Ventura Freeway" for US 101, the "Santa Monica Freeway" for I-10, etc. Additionally, when giving freeway numbers, Northerners will give them without the definite article or the word "freeway", e.g. "Follow 580 east until you cross 680"; Southerners will typically use "the" and sometimes the word "freeway", e.g. "Take the 405 freeway until you get to the Ventura Freeway". This varies throughout the state, so it's a good idea to have some idea of the name as well as the number. All freeways and highways are marked with the number even when there's no name, so it always pays to know the number.

Smaller urban highways and parkways are usually known by name -- Ashby Avenue rather than State Route 13, or San Pablo Avenue rather than SR 123, for example -- but even on these roads the number will be signposted regularly (though locals sometimes still have trouble remembering the numbers without the name).

For a really excellent comprehensive look at California's highways -- the numbering, their history, status, routes, etc., -- go to the California Highways Home Page. Great stuff!

Traffic Conditions and Traffic Reports

Traffic conditions in the major Californian urban and suburban areas generally vary from busy-but-fast-moving to totally choked up. Rush hour ("commute") traffic in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Area is often very bad, day after day; traffic on major rural freeways such as Interstate 5 or State Route 99 can also be surprisingly heavy, especially during holiday periods.

Many radio stations give out traffic information every so often; for example, KCBS (AM 740) in the Bay Area does this every ten minutes, 24 hours a day; KQED FM (88.5) does it every ten to 15 minutes during rush hours. It's usually worth listening to the traffic reports, but (especially in the Bay Area) sometimes there's no real alternative to a particular route, so being told that (say) all west-bound traffic on the Bay Bridge is completely stopped due to an earlier accident isn't always useful (except perhaps to tell you to stay where you are if you can until the traffic gets better); in other cases, you need to be a local to know useful alternative routes around the traffic problems.

Under certain conditions, it is often quicker to bypass the urban freeways. This is particularly true for parts of LA and the Bay Area, and is often referred to as "surfacing" or "taking a surface route". This can be tricky and dangerous unless you know what you're doing -- many "obvious" routes take you through the sort of area where it might be lethal to have your car break down, or where traffic conditions are even more unpredictable. Others, of course, will probably have the same idea....

In the Bay Area, Caltrans now has a special phone number, 511 (callable without a prefix from any Bay Area area code) which contains recorded information about traffic delays, public transit status, etc. This information is also available at www.511.org.