Figueroa, Flower Sts. Now Partly 1-Way
Stretches of Figueroa and Flower streets in the downtown area became one-way Saturday, completing a three-phase conversion of the streets that began two weeks ago.
Flower is now exclusively southbound between 3rd Street and Washington Boulevard, while Figueroa carries only northbound traffic between Olympic Boulevard and 3rd.
Police said downtown was so congested with Christmas shoppers Saturday that it was impossible to tell if motorists were having difficulty adjusting to the changes.
“Traffic is so damn heavy out there that if you had a gorilla driving a cement truck the wrong way up one of those streets it wouldn’t hurt anybody,” said traffic Lt. Marvin A. Kilpatrick.
The changes are part of the continuing adjustments in downtown traffic patterns to prepare for Metro Rail subway construction. Hill Street has already been converted to one-way southbound between Temple and 12th streets. The city also plans to switch the downtown sections of Olive Street to northbound and Grand Avenue to southbound next April.
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