From Flower Mound to the Pacific, in the same lane?

I discovered this phenomenon of traffic trivia tonight as I was driving to North Dallas.

If you get on southbound FM2499, starting at FM1171, and head towards Grapevine, where does it lead you? If you said Grapevine or Hwy 121, you'd be right. But think about this. Did you know that if you drive south in the right lane of FM2499, you'll wind up in the left-hand lane of LBJ Freeway heading eastbound all the way across North Dallas, and perhaps much farther down the road?



Here's the deal. You stay in that right-lane, which becomes the center lane when 2499 goes to three lanes each way south of Spinks. When you get to Grapevine Mills, you stay in that center lane, which becomes the right lane on the flyover. That right lane is an exit-only lane for 635/LBJ heading toward North Dallas. That lane that flies over the bridge becomes the new left lane for LBJ, and it stays the left lane all the way through North Dallas, at least. (The left-lane of FM2499, by the way, ends with a forced-merger at the LBJ flyover.)

Tonight I exited at Coit, so I don't know how far you can actually go in that same lane without being forced to exit or being merged into another lane. (This trivial traffic pursuit only counts if you can stay in the same lane without being forced to switch lanes or forced to exit.)

So how far will that same lane take you? Could it be to the Pacific Ocean? Here's how it could be. Left lanes rarely merged or are forced to exit. We know LBJ winds all the way around Dallas, and then becomes I-20 heading back toward Grand Prairie, Arlington and eventually to Fort Worth and beyond. There are very few left-lane exits - period, and none that I can think of along LBJ heading in that direction. There used to be a left-lane exit to get on northbound Central, but that was removed when the High Five was built. So what if that same lane survived (no forced exits, no forced merges into another lane) along I-20 past Fort Worth to Abilene and Midland? And what if that same left-lane survived past the merger with I-10 in West Texas. And what if it survived Phoenix and points west?

Could it be that the little lane that starts on FM2499 in Flower Mound takes you all the way to the Santa Monica Freeway in Los Angeles? Could you really drive that far and never have to change a single lane?

Only one way to find out!

ROAD TRIP!!!!!