So the original freeway plan for LA included a “Beverly Hills Freeway” that would’ve been decked over Santa Monica Boulevard from the southern stub of the 2 (“Glendale Freeway”) to the 405

And it was still being planned in the 1970s but was never executed can you imagine oh phew, but the thing is the rest of the network which assumed it would be there was built intact, so with no freeway serving the southern foothill edge of the Santa Monica Mountains (like the 5 does the northern edge; the 10’s too far south and the 101 crosses the mountains) there was basically no good route west from downtown, some of the densest and most active parts of the city just became… obsolete for decades, and it was entirely possible to live like 3 miles down the road from some of the hottest spots in the country and know that you would never go there unless you made it like, a thing that you would plan days ahead, take up at least 1 out of your whole morning, afternoon, or evening, and combine several destinations into 1 outing

I mean I’m sure some people drove it to work every day, but Angelino commuters are crazy