THE LOS ANGELES MARATHON : Drivers Are Losers as L.A. Marathon Closes 400 Streets, Creates Traffic Crush

The 26.2-mile Los Angeles Marathon created a virtual chokehold on the city’s side streets, sending frustrated drivers into a maze-like series of detours and jammed freeways.

An estimated 400 streets were barricaded along the route, creating a ring around Downtown, Exposition Park and parts of Hollywood.

Event organizers, anticipating a crush even worse than in years past because of earthquake damage to the Santa Monica Freeway, tried to post detour signs. But it often was of little help as ramps or intersections were closed in succession over a 12-hour span.

“Because the route is so large, there is no easy way to detour,” said Jim Sherman, principal transportation engineer for the city Department of Transportation. “Logistically, it’s just a tremendous job posting detour signs along the route.”

That stretched even short commutes into hours for Sunday workers accustomed to clear streets.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Allison Fisher, whose West Hollywood-to-Hollywood commute, normally requiring 15 minutes, stretched to almost two hours. “It didn’t look like your usual Sunday morning drive. The drivers were pretty courteous, but they all had that same dazed look.”

In some cases, irate drivers called to complain.

“We’ve been getting them all day,” said an officer in the LAPD’s Hollywood Division. “One woman said she tried to get on a freeway, but her access was blocked. It then took her three hours just to get back home.

“My opinion is just like everyone else’s,” the officer said. “They should run around the Coliseum.”

Sherman noted that city officials had tried to ease the problems by informing news media of the closures, and posting alerts on electronic message boards on surface streets.

But that did not help Fisher, who is an anchor reporter for the high school newscast Channel One. She left her home near the Beverly Center at 10:05 a.m., and headed to Raleigh Studios five miles away, at Melrose and Van Ness avenues.

“I knew the marathon was going on, and I just thought they would have detour signs,” she said. “They didn’t.”

Her usual route, 3rd Street, was closed, as was Beverly Boulevard. She tried Melrose and Wilshire Boulevard, but both were closed too. It was little consolation when she looked in her rear-view mirror and spotted the car of a co-worker who was facing the same headache.

She is not quite sure how, but she finally made it in. At 11:50 a.m.