Carmageddon - July 16/17th

The_Yoyo · Jul 7, 2011

Serious I am dreading this weekend I live less than 2 miles away from the 10/405 intersection where the 405 north will be shut down.

My mom is leaving to India that saturday morning on vacation and normally I meet my parents at LAX to send them off but not this time no way in hell am I going to go out on the roads that day.

For those also in LA they will know the absolute horror that is coming hopefully they are a bit further away from the epicenter than I am though

Angeleno Apocalypse: The Coming Carmageddon of L.A.'s Closed 405

To hear Angelenos talk about the news, you'd think we were bracing for the Big One. Or maybe preparing for something worse than the dire stretch of earthquakes, floods, fires and riots that hit us in the 1990s. Celebrities in Los Angeles are tweeting about the calamity; hospitals are up in arms about it; and local news channels are calling it "Car-mageddon." What could cause so much panic? If you live in L.A. and you don't know what I'm referring to, the next sentence may lead to more stress in your life. It's the 53-hour long shutdown of part of the 405 Freeway from July 15 to 17.
A road closure? On a weekend? All this distress over that? Well, it's not just any road. It's the 10-mile stretch of concrete that connects the Westside to the San Fernando Valley. It usually carries half a million people on the weekend, making it one of the busiest sections of one of the most dreaded roadways in L.A., home to the nation's worst traffic.

During the closure, construction crews will demolish the south side of a bridge, which will allow them to widen the freeway and add carpool lanes. They will rebuild the bridge over the next 11 months, and then shut the freeway again to repeat this process with the north side of the bridge. Officials are predicting backups of 32 miles in each direction over the July weekend, and as long as 50 miles under their worst-case scenario. Surface streets in the area, many of which snake up and down windy canyons, will be jammed. "We're hoping that the message that has been put out repeatedly will take root with everyone that drives, and they will stay out of the area," said Kirk Albanese, deputy chief at the Los Angeles Police Department. "But recognizing that that may not occur, we're planning for the very difficult traffic circumstances that we may be faced with."
The anxiety this is causing around L.A. is a reflection of the intimate, love-hate relationship that we have with our freeways. People love their cars in this spread-out metropolis. Public transportation, carpooling and walking are often shunned, which makes the freeways a central part of our lives. Ginger Chan, traffic reporter for local television station KTLA, says she even flirted with someone in bumper-to-bumper traffic once. "I have had that happen to me where some guy is trying to get my attention and we're both smiling at each other," she says.

At times, to hear us talk about the freeways, you'd think they were our most prized possession. A friend who recently moved here from the East Coast noted that if he's at a loss for words at a party, he can always strike up a conversation about traffic. If you want to do this and you're from out of town, some important points. First, they're "freeways" and not highways or toll roads like they are in some other parts of the country. Second, L.A. lingo dictates that a freeway must be referred to with the article "the" preceding it. You don't take "10 West" or "Interstate 10;" you take "the 10." Another friend from the East thinks the implication here is that our freeway is the only one, or at least the most important one; as if "the 10" that goes through L.A. is more special than the rest of Interstate 10 that stretches across the country.

Our traffic lingo doesn't stop there. We also have the SigAlert. According to the California Department of Transportation, or Caltrans, the term came about in the 1940s, when police became accustomed to notifying local radio reporter Loyd Sigmon about car accidents in the city. Caltrans then adopted the term to mean a wreck that ties up two or more lanes of a freeway. Now, the term is so common you can go to sigalert.com to check the status of the freeways.

That brings me to the hate part of the relationship. We know traffic is inevitable but we abhor it anyway — and can't stop complaining about it. An Angeleno trapped on a freeway by a SigAlert is likely to compare it to a human rights violation. Or check out sigalert.com on a given Friday afternoon. You'll see a lot of red lines. Those freeways are jammed. We pray for some yellow. Green would be an absolute miracle. Chan at KTLA likens the freeways to Murphy's law, the adage that states, "If anything can go wrong, it will." "It's the only way to get to certain places, so they're always jammed," says Chan, whose husband pilots the station's traffic helicopter. "I rarely get stuck because I can't stand it. It's like pouring acid on me. I always say I will drive in bad neighborhoods, I will cut you off, but I will not get stuck in traffic."
Everyone from local officials to actors are trying to help people avoid just that during the shut down. City websites are featuring countdowns to the closure as if it were the run-up to an election night. Actors Ashton Kutcher and William Shatner have sent Twitter messages about it. GPS companies have programmed their systems to inform drivers about it. Officials have announced they'll offer free bus rides. Freeway signs as many as 70 miles away are warning drivers with all-caps messages that say, "EXPECT BIG DELAYS." A website called "The Carmageddon Resistance" is encouraging people to download a traffic navigation app for smart phones. But if you do find yourself in 405 traffic on the dreaded weekend, make the best of it. You might even find a date, as Chan says. "I don't know anybody who's actually met on the freeway while being stuck," she says. "It could happen on the weekend of the 16th and 17th."
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http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2081752,00.html

Kam · Jul 7, 2011

I read about this.

I think you need to evacuate.

across110thstreet · Jul 9, 2011

it's going to be pretty crazy. I also live near the epicenter of where the 10 and 405 meet. I'll be on my motorized bike that day...

I didn't realize they are going to do the same thing in a year from now to cover the other direction.

all for what, a 10 mile stretch of carpool lanes that won't really do much to ease traffic IMO...

across110thstreet · Jul 11, 2011

this is hysterical and unfortunately spot on.

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Zackery · Jul 12, 2011

I live in Long Beach. I will be avoiding going north on the 405 for the entire weekend. Looks like I will spend my time in and around OC then.

Awesome · Jul 12, 2011

I work right in the smack middle of all of this

My job decides that theyre going to let us out at 3pm that day to get home

HAHAHAHA.... I think ill be working from home on Friday because whoever leaves at 3 in that area is screwed

Its already packed to the max as it is, and closing off transition ramps and a huge section of the freeway is going to cause massive traffic chaos.

Im good though, in all honesty the stress is not worth it. You see so much bad driving its scary.

boomboom · Jul 12, 2011

Was in Cerritos last weekend and laughed at all of the signs foreboding this. You know it's going to be bad when the transportation department is dropping negative adjectives in to describe the delays..."Expect BIG Delays". Lol...LA traffic sucks. Fortunately, I was in the counterflow to all of the nasty traffic this past weekend, with the exception of Friday afternoon rush hour trying to crawl down 405 to get to Huntington Beach.

Good luck guys!

rocketsjudoka · Jul 12, 2011

Its stuff like this why I never want to live in LA if I can help it.

Baqui99 · Jul 12, 2011

Why don't you go to SF for the weekend?

leroy · Jul 12, 2011

I know the area and I feel for all of you out there. I will do my best to stay away from it, too...by staying home in Round Rock.

across110thstreet · Jul 12, 2011

Baqui99 said: ↑

Why don't you go to SF for the weekend?
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the 5 freeway will be jammed with all the fools trying to avoid the 405...

Lady_Di · Jul 12, 2011

now I am glad I don't live in L.A. :grin:

pay back to your "the weather is awesome here" gloats!

The_Yoyo · Jul 12, 2011

Lady_Di said: ↑

now I am glad I don't live in L.A. :grin:

pay back to your "the weather is awesome here" gloats!
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its all good the weather still will be gorgeous here I'll just walk the 10 miles to the beach it'll be quicker than driving at least on that weekend :grin:

seriously i am just glad pretty much anything I need grocery stores, movie theaters, restaurants etc are all within a 10 min walk from where I am otherwise I was planning to just catch up on some reading and television this weekend.

Scarface281 · Jul 12, 2011

Too bad the "Subway to the Sea" isn't built yet. This is where rail transit is big.

leroy · Jul 12, 2011

The_Yoyo said: ↑

its all good the weather still will be gorgeous here I'll just walk the 10 miles to the beach it'll be quicker than driving at least on that weekend :grin:

seriously i am just glad pretty much anything I need grocery stores, movie theaters, restaurants etc are all within a 10 min walk from where I am otherwise I was planning to just catch up on some reading and television this weekend.
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I'd be willing to deal with the traffic if it meant getting out of this ridiculous weather pattern. Today will be day #28 over 100 and I think 12 in a row. The next 10 days are forecasted to be much of the same.

RocketMan Tex · Jul 12, 2011

Reason # 1,254,908,654 I am glad I no longer live in that craphole of a city....

across110thstreet · Jul 12, 2011

loving these "that's why I dont live in LA" responses!

I cant wait for this weekend. god forbid folks walk, ride a bike, or take a (free this weekend) train somewhere.

Too bad the "Subway to the Sea" isn't built yet. This is where rail transit is big.
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scarface281- the Exposition line is almost all the way to Culver Junction (National and Venice), i would give it until 2013 or so until it hits the coast...

The_Yoyo · Jul 12, 2011

across110thstreet said: ↑

loving these "that's why I dont live in LA" responses!

I cant wait for this weekend. god forbid folks walk, ride a bike, or take a (free this weekend) train somewhere.

scarface281- the Exposition line is almost all the way to Culver Junction (National and Venice), i would give it until 2013 or so until it hits the coast...
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actually i am glad this weekend is here in some ways

i had several people ask me for help on one thing or anything this weekend and I didnt want to go to 2 of them (all in orange county) and this is a perfect excuse why to just stay at home all weekend long and catch up on my tv shows

Microfridge · Jul 12, 2011

I live on east side close to 10 and 710

Probably won't affect me much but I still won't go out

leroy · Jul 12, 2011

I'm surprised. 19 previous posts and no...

I live in Katy. Should I evacuate?

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