Previously, it was rare to see pedestrians or bicyclists on the freeway, a sort of once-in-a-blue-moon type thing, where you'd see someone walking on the side or in the median of a freeway. Most often it would be a homel*ss person who wasn't thinking clearly, but even still, something you don't see too often.

However, in the last year or so, I feel like I've been seeing way more people walking or biking on the freeways. Pretty much every time I take the freeway for more than 20 minutes, I'm likely to see someone either strolling the freeway or riding on the far right side. While I'd still say the majority are homel*ss, there are a sizable portion of people - mostly bicyclists who are not homeless - who seem to want to use the freeway as an "expressway".

And it seems like pedestrian accidents on freeways are becoming much more common, especially at night when people try this. I swear it's every other day I hear about some getting killed walking across the freeway at night.

I don't know if its just me, but are others seeing this as well? My usual commutes are around Long Beach and the South Bay, so 405/710/91 mostly, so I'm curious to see if it's widespread, and if there's a reason why this is becoming more common.