Sunday, I decided to have another look at Mt. Hollywood Drive to see how it operated during peak time. Needless to say, the fabric of the road was even worse with more traffic and trash present.

One thing I’m learning is that most of the people parking along this stretch aren’t so interested in hiking to the Hollywood Sign, just to take their picture with it.

How do I know? First, let’s familiarize ourselves with Mt. Hollywood Drive first. Coming out of the tunnel, the first 1/3 mile of this road is steep and winding. You see cars parked all along the start, but you don’t see the sign until you hit the top of this stretch.

Once you see the sign, the road turns north. Although you get closer to the sign heading up this road, most people prefer viewing it from the peak to the south.

Why? The further you continue north, the distance to the sign may shorten, but you narrow your viewing angle to a point that it’s like looking at a sheet of paper from the side.

Because tourists have no idea where the sign is to start, when they make this turn north, they start looking for parking which is where the thickest part of the  line begins.

I continued on and while I had to head home to pick up my daughter, who did I see talking to hikers but Council Member Tom LaBonge himself. I happened to have my GoPro recording on my helmet, so there was no hidden camera tricks since the blinking red light should be enough.

It was a small group where there was only one other cyclist and four hikers, but the consensus opinion was this was a disaster. I asked who was responsible and LaBonge responded it was Parks and Rec and Griffith Superintendent Joe Salaices.

LaBonge did most of the talking, but didn’t give a concrete answer about a future determination until this pilot program was completed.

I brought up that increasing the capacity never solves the problem, like widening the 405.  It only encourages more cars and then more cars, which will bring an even bigger problem to your hand.

Unfortunately, something catastrophic happened to the audio that it makes it extremely hard to hear. My brother who has a background of cleaning these things up did his best, but to no avail, but….

I also had my Fly6 rear camera recording too! But….

I couldn’t download anything directly from the camera. But….

I was able to upload it through another device. The sound is still hard to hear, but doesn’t have the interference of my GoPro. I’ll give this another go soon.

While I’ll wait to have a proper listen again to make comment, I do appreciate LaBonge continuing his Griffith Park hikes in the heat of all this.

More to come..