Los Angeles braced for 'car-mageddon' as roadworks close the interstate 405

[marmar]

from the Guardian UK:




Other cities have traffic jams. Los Angeles is gearing itself up for "car-mageddon".

The City of Angels, already infamous for bumper-to-bumper extravaganzas that have inspired whole movies, is taking the unprecedented step of ordering the total closure of what is perhaps the most emblematic stretch of congested roadway in North America for one nightmarish weekend.

For 53 hours, from 7pm on the evening of Friday 15 July to the early hours of Monday 18 July, the San Diego freeway – referred to by local people, usually with a shudder, as 405, its interstate number – will be off limits between the San Fernando valley and the main LA basin.

The reason could not be more workaday: the local transport authority needs to demolish and rebuild a bridge over the freeway and cannot do it with cars haring in either direction directly below. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/08/los-angeles-braced-for-freeway-carmageddon

[Drale]

1. I used to think traffic in Chicago was the worst in the country

then I went to LA.

[WhiteTara]

10. Chicago is pretty terrible. I was shocked to see

traffic jams at 5am!

[Drale]

12. Lots of people heading to work at 5am /nt

[WhiteTara]

32. which is what shocked me!

That people have to be driving to work in a traffic jam at 5am is really sad.

[Liberal_in_LA]

57. lots of Los Angellenos work alternative shifts to avoid the traffic

So we don't have rush hours... we have rush periods...say 3pm to 8pm - you can't be guaranteed smooth sailing.

[Odin2005]

14. Traffic in Fargo just keeps getting worse every year.

And I swear the drivers just keep getting stupider. And WHY THE FUCK do people not use their DAMN TURN SIGNALS???

[Drale]

15. Cars have turn signals?

:rofl:Not in Chicago they don't.:rofl:

[dixiegrrrrl]

49. They do! it's that pedal on the left side of the floor board.

[Aerows]

51. I thought

it was that device on the steering wheel that makes noise. Not to mention the one-finger salute LOL

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. We've had warnings about it for weeks.

Fortunately, we don't use that part of it very much, and obviously during that weekend, not at all.

It will make things on the 405 a lot better once the work's done...

But getting there will not be pretty.

:scared:

[Lebam in LA]

56. I live 2 blocks from the 405

and 3 offramps from the southern start of the closure. Sepulveda will either be a parking lot or deserted. I hope it is the 2nd outcome.

[tishaLA]

3. I'm so fucking sick of hearing about carmageddon and carpocalypse

How hard is it to stay off the 405 for a few days? It's not. And yet the reports are so ubiquitous you'd think it was impossible to travel from point A to B without sitting on that oversized parking lot.

[flamingdem]

5. They are hyping the idea that traffic will be backed up to the Mexican Border! nt

[SoCalNative]

7. The company that I work for

is closing at 1PM on Friday because of this.

[pinboy3niner]

11. I can't help being affected

I'm flying back into LAX Sunday evening and still haven't figured out a decent way to return (heading North) to the Antelope Valley.

Out of curiosity, I had MetroLink plan a trip home for me. I think what they came up with came out at 6-7 hours (including walking a lot with my suitcase between connections) and takes 3 pages to print out.

The use of those riciculous terms doesn't bother me. The most important thing is that the word gets out to those who may be affected.

[MurrayDelph]

21. It may be worth it

to see if the airline can route you through Burbank.

[pinboy3niner]

31. That was my first choice when I booked

But it involved an extra plane/airline change, so I went with LAX. Now the extra change doesn't look so inconvenient, after all. :)

[flamingdem]

24. 10 to the 101 to the 5? nt

[Beaverhausen]

26. I think it should be 105 to 110 to the 5 - or does 105 go to the 5?

but all those other freeways will be affected.

[tishaLA]

30. you're right.

105 to the 110 to the 5. I come home from LAX (downtown LA) 105 to the 110. From there, getting to the 5 is a relative piece of cake, except for the interminable wait on the 110 at Elysian Park.

[Bluenorthwest]

37. La Cienega will be your friend

That is all.

[Raine]

4. The warnings are OK and needed but giving it a stupid name like "car-mageddon"

makes us look like a bunch of idiot air-heads. :puke:

[flamingdem]

6. Wait until the blockbuster movie with that title gets announce... bleeech nt

[Supply Side Jesus]

28. title, prehaps, but i got the treament ready to go!!!

ok, so here it goes

Hank has a girlfriend, Sally. Sally is pissed at Hank cuz he wont pop the question after 6 years. Hank is a advertisement phenom who is working on his biggest assignment yet, **INSERT MEGACOMPANY PRODUCT PLACEMENT HERE** .

After a heated debate with graphic design artist, Heather, who is of course way hotter than Sally, Hank forgets his anniversary/valentines day/nephew's first communion, dinner, in which he was suppose to propose to Sally. Unbeknownst to Hank, his sister, Hannah dropped a dime to Sally about the proposal.

Now Sally is going to Vegas for a company retreat, much to contrary her previously snide comments about the retreat, and he particular disdain for Taylor, the beefy tanned ripped frat boy who has been putting the moves on. Sally's wise cracking "urban" friend, Tanisha, tells her to "go on girl and get your groove on..."

Hank is desperately trying to catch up with Sally at the airport, with the help from his stoner overweight, unshaven roommate,Paul, but is always one step behind, and to make matter's worse, the 405 is shut down for the weekend!!!

IT'S THE CAROCALYPSE!!!


Don't worry, Heather and Taylor hook up, along with Tanish and Paul. And in a heart felt scene, complete strangers applaud a couple's engagement unfold in the middle of McCarren Airport.

there ya go...CHECK PLZ!!

[flamingdem]

61. You're hired! This is high concept, I'm high on this project, faaaabulous! nt

[Hugabear]

62. Starring Nicolas Cage, no doubt - n/t

n/t

[RKP5637]

8. It does! It's a stupid name. It's road work, plain old road work. n/t

[Nailzberg]

27. Just wait for the sequel, Carmeggedon 2.

Coming next summer.

[Initech]

9. When I was in Kentucky a couple months ago my cousins were complaining about traffic.

I'm like: "shut up. If you don't go to LA often you do not get to complain about traffic."

[Odin2005]

13. This is what happens when you have a society built around cars rather than people.

They don't have shit like this in Europe.

[trackfan]

16. The article has a factual error.

There is a false assertion in this passage:

"San Diego freeway – referred to by local people, usually with a shudder, as 405"

No local person refers to the freeway in question as "405". Anybody, with any knowledge of Los Angeles, knows that
the correct locution would be, "the 405".

[Shagbark Hickory]

17. On the east coast, we'd call it i-405.

I wonder why you call your interstates "freeways" too.
It's like you're in another country. With a completely different culture and language.

[Odin2005]

18. This Minnesotan is bugged when someone calls an interstate a "freeway".

[flamingdem]

22. Is the 405 an interstate? nt

[Shagbark Hickory]

33. Um... Yeah it is!

[JNelson6563]

48. Growing up in Detroit area

they were all generally referred to as "expressways" but specifically they were referred to as I-94 or I-75 or whatever.

Julie

[dixiegrrrrl]

52. down here it is called "the 4 lane".

We got ONE "4 lane" and lots of "2-lanes" in this state.

and where I live, a traffic jam is if I can see 2 cars on the road, even if one of them is coming my way.

:evilgrin:

[Odin2005]

55. LOL, around here I-94 and I-29 are 6-lane and US-10 is 4-lane.

In the Twin Cities the Interstates and their loops are 8-lane or even more.

[trackfan]

19. Well, they are free, but I'll admit

we still would refer to a similar road, the only difference being an occasional toll booth, as a freeway. It's just too ingrained.

[Shagbark Hickory]

34. Well they aren't roads either. This is a road...

[trackfan]

43. We'd probably call that a "river",

even though it appears to be somewhat less dry than most of our local rivers.

[Shagbark Hickory]

45. Nope. It may look like a dried up river bed but it's a road.

The same road

[shanti]

29. the 405

is not an interstate. what it is however, is one of the hairiest, white-knuckle freeways in california! the only other freeway that can compare is I-80 in the bay area. multi-lanes, crazy drivers, lots of interchanges...yikes!

[Shagbark Hickory]

35. That red and blue shield means interstate. Or if you'd prefer, "Expressway" is also acceptable.

Speak properly. :toast: Speak like we do on the east coast. :silly:

[Bluenorthwest]

38. the 405 is an Interstate Highway. As is the 10, which is formally

called 'The Christopher Columbus Transcontinental Highway'.

[shanti]

40. really?

where does the 405 leave california?

[Xithras]

42. The 405 was originally built as an alternate route for 5

Interstate highway designations aren't only used for highways that cross state lines, but also for highways within a single state that are designed specifically to connect two other interstates together. Interstate 580 in the SF Bay Area is another example of this...it never crosses state lines, but is a federally maintained interstate because it was designed specifically to provide a southern connection between Interstate 5 and Interstate 80 (hence the 580 designation).

Way back in the 1950's, the 5 through downtown LA was getting so congested with local traffic that engineers decided to build a bypass. The 405 was built to curve around Los Angeles, and cut a path through the farmland to the west of the city. It was built to provide a traffic relieving alternate path so that thru-travellers on 5 wouldn't have to drive through L.A. on their way south.

The idea may sound a bit funny a half century later with the farmland all gone and the freeway solidly in the middle of the city, but that was still its origin, and it's still a part of the interstate highway system because of it.

[shanti]

44. thanks for the info

ya learn something new every day! :hi:

[flamingdem]

60. Never knew there was such thing as a "freeway nerd" nt

[Xithras]

41. We Californians have better things to do than to dot our language with useless abbreviations.

Unless you're trying to determine whose budget gets to pay for the potholes, most of us don't care whether our roadways are interstates, state routes, county junctions, county routes, or plain old highways.

Any multi-lane road connecting two towns, that also has stop signs/lights and intersections, is a highway. Any multi-lane road connecting two towns, that has ramps and lacks intersections, is a freeway. The use of any I- or SR-, or CJ/R- beyond that is redundant...we simply need the designation.

To get to the best city in America from L.A., you take the 5 north to 580 west, merge onto westbound 80 when you hit the maze, and hop off after you cross the bridge ;)

Litering that sentence with "i-" this and "highway" that just seems...wrong.

[Shagbark Hickory]

47. I don't understand. 580? Do you mean US 580 or I-580 or St. Route 580?

I don't know what it is. Which one?

[MurrayDelph]

20. Actually, as a former Angelino

we called the "the Fucking 405".

[flamingdem]

23. The 10 is getting almost as bad going East after 2:30.. nt

[Beaverhausen]

25. Hitler rants about carmageddon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlLZ4RWyyAw&feature=player_embedded

I think the whole thing is funny, although I have to postpone plans to celebrate my birthday because of it! Oh well, if it makes travel better in the future, cool by me.

[MadHound]

36. One of the major reasons I don't live in a major metro area,

I don't feel like spending two hours of my life everyday being part of a highway parking lot.

Been to LA a few times, and the traffic is beyond horrible.

[Javaman]

39. Leave town.

or sit at home and watch movies.

That's my suggestion.

L.A. without the 405 for 56 hours? LOL it will take 72 hours to clear up the resulting traffic jams.

[-..__...]

46. Sounds like it just might be bad enought...

to push someone over the edge...

[Taverner]

50. A lot of Losangelinos I know said their work is going to encourage work-from-home that week

[Beaverhausen]

53. Our company is at least giving options for Friday and Monday

I'm actually getting excited to see how crazy this thing gets.

[Taverner]

54. The strangest thing to me about LA is the vast areas which NO highways go through

LA -> OC, for example. You can't go straight: you have to go around and then back again.

[pinboy3niner]

58. Ah, Grasshopper, you have much to discover

Angelenos have learned to transcend the concepts of time and space.

Spending long priods in traffic jams to traverse a short distance is an art.

And 'going straight' is a non sequitur here. :)

[ej510]

59. I sat in traffic on the 405 north last week. Traffic was backed up

for miles. Traffic was fucked up even when 405 turned into 5 bypassing 14.