Service Request #2: Why Is This Red Light So Damn Long?
3/24/202628 min
What the world's most advanced traffic system can—and can't—do for the city that invented gridlock.
What infrastructure mystery keeps you up at night? Submit your Service Request by recording a voice memo with your question and emailing it to servicerequest@99pi.org.
Service Request is a production of 99% Invisible and Campside Media.
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsVivian Le· Guest0:02
So we are driving around Los Angeles at the best time of day, 5:41 PM.
Delaney Hall· Host0:08
Vivian Le works with me at 99% Invisible, and she's on her way out for after work drinks at one of her favorite bars in LA.
Vivian Le· Guest0:17
And my husband, Cody, is driving us, I'd like to say because I'm recording, but you're driving me because what?
Cody Franklin· Guest0:27
Because you're a passenger princess.
Vivian Le· Guest0:30
That's exactly correct.
Delaney Hall· Host0:31
Some people enjoy driving. Some people, like Vivian, really do not. But nobody enjoys being stuck in traffic.
Cody Franklin· Guest0:40
No one's moving. What are, what are they doing? I wanna burn the intersection to the ground and piss on the ashes.
Vivian Le· Guest0:47
Oh, my God.
Delaney Hall· Host0:47
LA is famously a car town, known for its endless freeways and its soul-crushing rush hour traffic. And in a city full of bad intersections, Vivian and Cody are headed towards one that many consider to be the worst. It's where three roads, Fairfax, Olympic, and San Vicente, all intersect.
Vivian Le· Guest1:10
I think it's technically called the Fairfax asterisk, but I like to think of it as the devil's three-way, because you have this weird triangle in the middle, and there are, like, one, two, three, four, five- Right ... traffic lights.
Delaney Hall· Host1:25
To navigate this intersection, Vivian and Cody have to make it through two traffic