Why Waterford Street is the 405's phantom off-ramp…

The southbound 405 Waterford Street Exit, which is proposed to be exit number 56 (with Lake Forest being 1A and Rinaldi being 72), has been closed for a decade. It is the 405's Phantom off-ramp.

You see, on October 9, 1993, a man in camouflage stole a bus in San Diego (not to be confused with the stolen tank from San Diego). He led police on an 8-hour chase to Malibu over the Santa Monica Mountains to the 101 to the 405 South where he exited on Waterford Street. He ran into police cars and eventually crashed into a house. All this adventure, coupled with other collisions related to the design of the freeway exit prompted L.A. City officials (Braude) to propose temporary a closure of the off-ramp in 1993 (which turned permanent in 1997).

CalTrans concurred, and citing low exit volumes (average of 50 cars during peak hours) and an outdated design, closed the off-ramp.

As of 2005, the State is also looking to close the Waterford Street onramp. I say, the more off/on-ramps they close the faster traffic will move because there is that much less merging and lane changes. If only exits were 5 miles apart - then traffic would really move! Forget the hype about signal synchronization!