Traffic

From its perch by the runways, the Proud Bird Restaurant offers a commanding view of Los Angeles International Airport. But these days, the jets aren't screaming by as often as they did a few years ago. The streets surrounding the airport are quieter too, as freight companies idle their cargo trucks and lay off their warehouse workers. Shuttle and parking service companies, meanwhile, are fighting for customers as never before.

They're not the Emmys or the Oscars, and the gift baskets aren't full of expensive goodies. But for the people who break into television and radio programming every so often to tell you how traffic is on the 405 and 110 freeways, this was their day in the driver's seat. It was the annual Golden Pylon Awards, which were dished out today at Maggiano's Little Italy restaurant in the Grove. Pylon is the fancy word for traffic cone, which for drivers always signals trouble ahead.

An Oakland police officer was shot in the foot Sunday morning after stopping a big-rig truck driver for driving erratically on a freeway, authorities said. The police were making a traffic stop on Interstate 880 north of the Oakland airport about 3:45 a.m. when the driver left the truck and fired a shotgun, hitting one of the officers, Sgt. Randy Pope said. Police returned fire but did not hit the suspect. The man got back in the truck and fled before crashing the big rig in the 3400 block of East Ninth Street, Pope said.

One of Southern California's toughest commutes is about to get somewhat easier. Officials today will break ground on a $59.5-million project to widen the eastbound side of 91 Freeway with the hope of easing congestion for commuters along the heavily traveled stretch between Orange and Riverside counties. The section has long been considered one of the worst freeway bottlenecks in the nation, connecting bedroom communities in the Inland Empire to job centers in Orange and L.A. counties.

Baldwin Park Mayor Manuel Lozano has a catchphrase for how you know you're in his city. "If you want to know where Baldwin Park is, if you're traveling either east or west on the 10 Freeway and you come to a complete stop, you know you're in Baldwin Park," he says. The area bottlenecks at rush hour, Lozano said, with commuters traveling between Los Angeles and San Bernardino County. Sometimes, he said, it's so bad that commuters pull over and stop at In-N-Out Burger to pass the time, hoping the congestion eases.

Don't tell Cathy Glueck about traffic on Los Angeles' Westside. Zigzagging along surface streets in her heavy-duty Ford Flex, which she affectionately calls her "schlepper-mobile," she's become adept at finding the fastest routes to shuttle her children to evening sports practice from their home in Beverlywood.

The international trade business is foundering faster than ever seen before, with some U.S. seaports watching cargo traffic fall by more than a third. It's gotten so bad that Los Angeles and Long Beach are slashing cargo rates to keep old customers and lure new business. Oakland's port has laid off 12% of its staff and canceled free tours for the public.

Take world-class traffic congestion. Add protesters, tens of thousands of them, until streets become a thick, impenetrable mass. Let angry horn-blowing begin. Repeat, over and over. There are times in Mexico's teeming capital when you can't get there from here. Usually, it's a question of too many cars on too few streets. But on many other days -- Wednesday, for example -- the paralysis is caused by street demonstrations, which are as worthy an emblem of Mexico City as the Angel of Independence statue on Paseo de la Reforma, where marchers often gather.