Interstate 405 (California)
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The San Diego Freeway (partly designated Interstate 405, and part of Interstate 5 south of the El Toro Y) is one of the principal north-south highways in Southern California, and the major beltway of I-5 running through Southern California. Connecting Los Angeles to South Orange County, it is heavily traveled by commuters and freight haulers along its entire length and is known as one of the busiest and most congested freeways in the world. It has played a crucial role in the development of dozens of cities and suburbs along its route through the Greater Los Angeles area.
It was the subject of a 3-minute computer-generated movie called 405, produced in May 2000 by Bruce Branit and Jeremy Hunt. The movie depicted a DC-10 jet making an emergency landing on the freeway behind a driver.
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Route
The San Diego Freeway splits away from the Golden State Freeway in the Mission Hills district of Los Angeles (Exits 73/158), becoming Interstate 405. From the northern San Fernando Valley it heads straight south toward the Santa Monica Mountains. After crossing over the Sepulveda Pass, its route roughly follows the outline of the Pacific coast, but between five and ten miles inland. It crosses the Los Angeles/Orange county line in Long Beach, then continues southeast through Orange County. It is joined by the Santa Ana Freeway in southeastern Irvine at the massive El Toro Y interchange, below which it merges back into Interstate 5 (at Exit 94).
The San Diego Freeway's congestion problems are legendary, leading to the joke that the Interstate was named 405 because traffic moves at "four or five" miles an hour. Indeed, average speeds as low as five miles per hour are routinely recorded during morning and afternoon commutes, and its interchanges with the Ventura Freeway (milepost 63) and with the Santa Monica Freeway (milepost 53) each consistently rank among the five most congested freeway interchanges in the United States. Commuters are known to despise the freeway: Steve Harvey of the Los Angeles Times once featured a personalized license plate with the text HATE405 in his column. While much of this gridlock has to do with the lack of alternate routes between many of the areas it connects (some of which, such as the Pacific Coast and Laurel Canyon freeways, were proposed but abandoned for political reasons), the freeway would likely be busy even with the addition of other roads and mass transit solutions, as it connects so many important locations in the Greater Los Angeles area.
Landmarks
Transportation
Commerce/Recreation
- Century City high-rise office park
- Marina del Rey
- More than ten California state beaches, as well as many owned by counties and municipalities, and many tourist-heavy beach cities
Education and cultural
- California State University, Northridge
- The J. Paul Getty Center
- University of California, Los Angeles
- Loyola Marymount University
- California State University, Dominguez Hills
- California State University, Long Beach
- University of California, Irvine
Communities served
Communities along Interstate 405 include
Major freeways/highways intersecting Interstate 405 (northwest to southeast)
Golden State Freeway (Exit 73/158) in San Fernando (district of Los Angeles)
Ronald Reagan Freeway (Exit 71) in Mission Hills (district of Los Angeles)
Ventura Freeway (Exit 63B) in Sherman Oaks (district of Los Angeles)
Santa Monica Boulevard (Exit 55A; surface street) in West Los Angeles (district of Los Angeles)
Santa Monica Freeway (Exits 3AB/53) in West Los Angeles (district of Los Angeles)
Venice Boulevard (Exit 52; surface street) in West Los Angeles (district of Los Angeles)
Marina Freeway (Exit 50A) in Culver City
Manchester Boulevard (Exit 47; surface street) in Inglewood
Century Freeway (Exits 2/45) at the 'Sadao S. Munemori Memorial Interchange' in Hawthorne
Hawthorne Boulevard (Exit 42A; surface street) in Lawndale
Western Avenue (Exit 38B; surface street) in Torrance
Harbor Freeway (Exits 9/37) in Harbor Gateway (district of Los Angeles)
Long Beach Freeway (Exits 4/32AB) in Long Beach
Lakewood Boulevard (Exit 27; surface street) in Long Beach
San Gabriel River Freeway (Exit 24) in Seal Beach
Garden Grove Freeway (Exit 21) in Garden Grove
Beach Boulevard (Exit 16; surface street) in Westminster
San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor (Exit 11A) (toll road) in Costa Mesa
Costa Mesa Freeway (Exit 9A) in Costa Mesa
Laguna Freeway (Exit 2) in Irvine- Santa Ana Freeway (Exits 1/94A) at the El Toro 'Y' in Irvine
The O.J. Simpson chase
While dangerous high-speed chases along the San Diego Freeway are not uncommon, perhaps the most famous chase in its history was also one of the slowest. On the afternoon of June 17, 1994, former football star O.J. Simpson, suspected in the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and waiter Ronald Goldman, took to the freeway in a white Ford Bronco (driven by former USC teammate Al Cowlings) pursued by police, commencing a bizarre, widely televised low-speed chase that ended hours later when Simpson returned to his estate in Brentwood via the Sunset Boulevard exit and gave himself up to police.
State Law
Legal Definition of Route 405: California Streets and Highways Code, Chapter 2, Article 3, Section 615
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Route 405 is part of the Freeway and Expressway System, as stated by section 253.1 of the California State Highway Code. |
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Three-digit Interstates from Interstate 5 |
| I-105 | California - Oregon |
| I-205 | California - Oregon/Washington |
| I-305 | California |
| I-405 | California - Oregon - Washington |
| I-505 | California |
| I-605 | California |
| I-705 | Washington |
| I-805 | California |
| past/ future |
I-305: Oregon - I-505: Oregon - I-605: Washington - I-905: California |
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