MercuryNews.com | 09/03/2006 | Freeway lifestyle nears a dead end
On a recent morning in Sacramento, the scene reflected in Felix Izarraras’ sunglasses is a video clip of flannel-gray pavement and shiny guardrails. He’s a California Highway Patrol officer and also an astute observer of the interstate network — “the most beautiful highway system in the world.”

“The interstates,” he says, “represent America to me.”

The grid, which California historian Kevin Starr calls an “epic of public-works construction that facilitated the rise of California as a mega-state,” is Izarraras’ turf. Cruising I-5 and other highways, he has learned to read these roads — the date stamp on the bridge that suggests a deteriorating infrastructure; the new Ikea strategically placed near major freeways, hatcheries for a big-box culture we depend on for our cereal, Polo shirts and lawn furniture; the skid marks that hint at the breakneck speeds and sudden stops that define our daily lives.

“Californians are used to getting there and getting there quickly,” says Izarraras, who recalls as a kid in L.A. “looking up and all you saw was freeway,” with everyone going somewhere — fast. “To really embrace the California way of life, whether it’s seeking business or pleasure, it has to be now. These roads allow that to happen. The interstates are California.”

Apparently sitting in stalled traffic is California.