The Harbor Freeway is, with the Long Beach Freeway, the principal means for freight to get from the port of Los Angeles to rail yards and warehouses further inland. Its interchange with the Santa Monica Freeway is notoriously busy and congested, and the portions bordering Bunker Hill in northwest downtown Los Angeles are choked with traffic at peak travel times.
The Harbor Freeway is noted for its elaborate high-occupancy vehicle lane infrastructure, with HOV lanes elevated above the rest of traffic in many areas and with towering and graceful on- and offramps. Of particular note is the 7-story ramp that connects the eastbound Century Freeway to its northbound carpool lanes, offering splendid views of virtually the entire Los Angeles Basin and the San Gabriel Mountains on (infrequent) clear days.
Pop Culture References
A portion of the Harbor Freeway is shown on the cover of punk rock legends The Minutemen's double-album, Double Nickels on the Dime; the sign shown for San Pedro (the band's hometown) uses the old designation of California State Highway 11.
The Harbor Freeway is often heavily congested at rush hour
Communities Served
Communities along the route of the Harbor Freeway include:
The Santa Monica Freeway is the westernmost segment of Interstate 10, beginning at the western terminus of I-10 at the Pacific Coast Highway in Santa Monica, California and ending southeast of downtown Los Angeles at the famous East Los Angeles Interchange.
The freeway is 14 lanes wide (2 local, 5 express in each direction) from the HarborFreeway interchange to the Arlington Avenue offramp; most of these lanes are full at peak travel times (even on Saturdays).
While the construction of the Century Freeway several miles to the south eased traffic congestion to a considerable extent by creating an alternate route from downtown to Los Angeles International Airport, the Santa Monica Freeway is still one of the busiest freeways in the world.
Its eastern terminus is located in Riverside at the junction with the Pomona, Moreno Valley, and Escondido freeways (SR-60, SR-60, and I-215 respectively).
From the HarborFreeway to its intersection with the Long Beach Freeway in northern Long Beach, SR-91 is named the GardenaFreeway.
From the Santa Ana Freeway to its eastern terminus at the intersection of the Pomona, Moreno Valley, and Escondido Freeways, it is named the Riverside Freeway.
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