As a fan of both urban infrastructure and secret knowledge, I cannot recommend the current “Loop Feedback Loop” exhibit at the Center for Land Use Interpretation highly enough. The Los Angeles street and freeway network is such a complex system that it’s unmanageable without automated assistance and intervention which in turn feedback into the system by controlling traffic signals, etc. All the data from the surveillance cameras, embedded induction loops, and monitoring devices are transmitted to the LA Department of Transportation’s Automated Traffic Surveillance and Control (ATSAC) System – an underground “traffic war room” (all data centers need to have a Dr. Strangelove-sized “war room” where the central brain for the system is located.
The CLUI exhibit details all this plus you get to view real-time data and laugh at the one photo of the ATSAC center which shows one of the screens tuned to The People’s Court. And you’re also right next to the best specialized bookstore in Los Angeles.