The unidentified person was extracted from the car and taken to a local hospital along with a second motorist involved in the collision and whose vehicle remained on the freeway, said Ron Myers, Los Angeles City Fire Department spokesman.

The second driver was not in critical condition.

The collision happened around 8:32 a.m. on the westbound freeway near Shoup Avenue.

The transit agency’s holiday free fare program is effective from 9 p.m. on Dec. 24 until 2 a.m. Dec. 25. It repeats at 9 p.m. on Dec. 31 till 2 a.m. Jan. 1.

Metro offers free rides during the holidays to promote safety and provide alternatives to driving for holiday revelers.

The LA Opera Luxury Express eliminates the stress of driving downtown and offers peaceful, air conditioned and round-trip rides for $15. Passengers listen to pre-performance talks on the coach audio system and are encouraged to bring snacks and beverages along for the ride.

The coach liner departs from the Federal Building parking lot at 11000 Wilshire Blvd. in Westwood at 5:45 p.m. for most operas. It operates for all Monday through Thursday performances.

Roundtrip tickets can be reserved at (213) 972-8001.

Road closings are:
-- Hollywood Boulevard from Orange Drive to Highland Avenue is closed starting Saturday, Nov. 24.
-- North and southbound ramps on the Hollywood Freeway at Cahuenga Boulevard and Highland Avenue are closed from 3 -10 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 25.

All streets along the U-shaped parade route are also closed with no paking or stopping on Sunday. The route kicks off on Hollywood Boulevard at Orange Drive and heads east to Vine Street. From there, the celebration heads south to Sunset Boulevard and then west to Orange Drive, where the parade ends.

The parade starts at 5 p.m. This is the first year for the Hollywood Santa Parade, following in the footsteps of its predecessor the Hollywood Christmas Parade. For more information, click HERE.

Holiday revelers are encouraged to use public transportation to see the fun. Metro's Red Line stops at Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue.

Running every 35 minutes, the new service -- called the Observatory Shuttle -- operates every 35 minutes from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. It does not run on holidays. Passengers pay 25 cents to ride the red trolley bus, a component of the Los Angeles Department of Transportation.

The new service replaces the DASH Los Feliz bus on weekends. The DASH for Los Feliz will no longer run on weekends starting Saturday, Nov. 24.

For more information about the Observatory Shuttle, DASH Los Feliz or other transit services, go to the Los Angeles Department of Transportation's Web site HERE.

The commercial depicts people driving the fuel-efficient Prius in an imagined future in which “gas stations will become nothing more than low-budget tourist stops. Like ghost towns ... or Fresno.”

That slap got no mileage with Mayor Alan Autry, who asked Feinstein to intervene. Friday, Toyota officials recalled the spot produced for auto dealers in the Southeast U.S., and edited out any mention of the word Fresno.

Officials in the San Joaquin Valley’s largest city say Fresno may not have a beach or a bay,
but it’s the best place in the state to raise a family.

The money comes from Proposition 1B, a $19.9 transportation bond voters approved last year. Traditionally the nine-member board has divided money by giving 60 percent to Southern California and the rest to the northern part of the state.

But regional transit officials say that split does not work when it comes to goods, because the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles handle 90 percent of the state's imports, and the area grapples with more than its fair share of truck traffic to accommodate cargo that's hauled across the country. They urge the governor-appointed board to reconsider its ways.

Seeking $1.7 billion for the region, transit and port officials in Los Angeles County have banded together with transportation agencies from the county of Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura.

The commission met in La Quinta from Nov. 7-8.

And if you want to survive these mean streets, you need to understand both.

One L.A. rule works like this: If you're waiting behind cars in a left-turn lane, never expect to go when the arrow turns green.

The first driver in line will almost always be distracted and fail to notice that the precious green arrow is lighted until the last few seconds before it again turns red.

Then the driver will punch the gas and get through the intersection - leaving the rest in line angrily muttering about dimwits until the next green arrow arrives.

Expect the cycle to repeat.

Get the story HERE.

What have you experienced on L.A.'s roads? Tell our reader response blog, at the end of the story! We love your commentary!

Heading east on the 101 Freeway from Woodland Hills at 6 p.m., traffic crept along at less than 10 miles an hour for about 15 miles. I kept thinking there was a roadside massacre of some sort ahead.

Instead, the gridlock stemmed from a City Ride bus stuck in a lane in the Cahuenga Pass. Don't know yet what the problem was with the little bus - a specialized service for the disabled and seniors through the Los Angeles Department of Transportation.

But the disabled bus turned a 45-minute commute into a two-hour ride.

How long did it take you to get home? Tell our blog!

Before getting in your car and getting stuck in bottlenecks, check out the updated list of road closures on the county's Department of Public Works Web site. Here 'tis the LINK.

Caltrans also lists road closings. You can see them HERE.

The rain, at least three accidents and a detour near Los Angeles International Airport have traffic backed up for miles.

Closest to the San Fernando Valley is a crash involving a car that flew over the embankment around 8:45 a.m. near the southbound 405 Freeway and the westbound 101 Freeway. Then a person was found slumped over the steering wheel at La Tijera Boulevard and the southbound 405 Freeway. And there's a wreck at Century Boulevard and the 405 Freeway, said Officer Jose Nunez, California Highway Patrol.

In addition, a water main break that happened Tuesday at Century and Sepulveda boulevards is still a big old mess. Repairs are expected by noon today. Meanwhile traffic is being diverted at northbound Sepulveda Boulevard at Imperial Highway near the airport entrance.

Just north of Lancaster, two elderly men died and 16 people were hospitalized in three collisions that involved a total of four big rigs and eight other vehicles, said Officer Henry Ross of the California Highway Patrol.

The victims were not identified. Two of the injured were listed in critical condition, said Los Angeles County Fire Inspector Sam Padilla.

Winds were gusting up to 58 mph about 1:30 p.m., triggering three collisions on the Antelope Valley (14) Freeway near Avenue B, CHP and fire officials said.

Get the story by Daily News writers Jerry Berrios and Karen Maeshiro HERE.

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Meanwhile, cars and trucks will share the freeway the road, that was closed over the weekend from a 31-vehicle pile-up Friday on the southbound truck bypass. Authorities have installed braces in the tunnel for extra support.

Called the Transit Insider, the site lists decades of detailed information about Los Angeles, Glendale and Burbank. It's the baby of Kymberleigh Richards, who sits on Metro's San Fernando Valley Service Sector and on the nonprofit board of the Southern California Transit Advocates.

Richards most prized fact found to date is about a bus line set to ferry passengers from the San Fernando Valley to Century City in 1980 but was cancelled by the RTD board about one month before it was set to take off. She calls it Line 570: The RTD Line that never was.

Check out her site HERE.

Go to metro.net/mobile to access the stuff, tailor fit for small screens and slow Internet access.

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