Carmageddon

[Ivan Seeking]

The 405 fwy in Los Angeles will be closed for construction work. For anyone who has to drive in the area, what a nightmare this will be! Last night on the Tonight Show, Jay Leno actually played a video of alternate routes.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xjwt2x_the-tonight-show-with-jay-leno-alternate-405-routes_news

Back when the Olympics were held in LA, the freeways were predicted to be a nightmare, but in fact they were the best I've ever seen them. It was all so well planned that the load on the road systems was actually reduced. However, that was a long time ago.

[Ben Niehoff]

Yeah, I'm curious to see what will actually happen. I have to fly out of Burbank on the 17th, driving to the airport from Hollywood. So theoretically, I shouldn't be getting anywhere near the usual 405 traffic. But it depends how far out of the way people end up having to drive in order to get through the mountains. According to some of the articles I've seen, the Cahuenga Pass (the road that runs between Hollywood and Burbank) is one of the suggested alternate routes...but I would expect 405 traffic to use the passes that are further west before they come here.

[Ivan Seeking]

Yeah, I'm curious to see what will actually happen. I have to fly out of Burbank on the 17th, driving to the airport from Hollywood. So theoretically, I shouldn't be getting anywhere near the usual 405 traffic. But it depends how far out of the way people end up having to drive in order to get through the mountains. According to some of the articles I've seen, the Cahuenga Pass (the road that runs between Hollywood and Burbank) is one of the suggested alternate routes...but I would expect 405 traffic to use the passes that are further west before they come here.

Did you look at Leno's video. Well worth your time, I would think.

I would expect that the gridlock will extend to roundabout Tokyo.

[berkeman]

And the gridlock is now exteding to that video -- won't serve up. Probably overloaded :redface:

[rhody]

L.A. Drivers Ecstatic When I-405 Reopens Early (http://www.vpr.net/npr/138462424/)

You can't make this stuff up folks, seriously...
Jet Blue took passengers like Ezra Horn from Burbank to Long Beach on flights that cost just $4.

"The pilot told us the flight was going to be 22 minutes but he's going to try and do it in 14," Horn said. "He ended up doing it in 12. And if you look at the flight path, he actually flew in an S-shape to fly the whole plane over the 405 freeway to give everybody an eyeful of the empty freeways."

On Saturday, five bicyclists calling themselves Wolfpack Hustle even raced against the plane. They rode for nearly 39 miles, mostly on bike paths along the L.A River.

One of the cyclists, actor John Budnoff, said they started out from North Hollywood when Horn left for the airport at 10:50 a.m. "So Wolfpack got there at 12:24 and the plane landed at 12:51. We just annihilated them so bad," he said.

Budnoff and his teammates say they wanted to prove that cycling in L.A. is definitely a viable means of transportation.
Only in L.A.

Rhody...

[Jimmy Snyder]

I was supposed to fly into LA from Newark next week, but I cancelled my flight when I found out that you could bicycle there faster.

[Ivan Seeking]

It was the Olympics all over again - Carmageddon didn't materialize.

The Los Angeles planners and drivers deserve big kudos for this one. It could have been a nightmare. There was even a soccer game at the Colosseum with about 100K in attendance but it didn't cause any problems.

[rhody]

Watch the construction, time lapsed into 40 seconds... (http://online.wsj.com/video/time-lapse-race-to-strip-bridge-in-carmageddon/98BDA441-1E8C-4192-9D90-061E272061D2.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_mpvidcar_1). Go, baby, go...

Rhody... you have to put with with commercial first... eh... :grumpy:

P.S. see what folks can do when they decide to achieve a goal, and put aside all of the B.S. !!
Reminds me of a number of years back when an access causeway in Florida (Disney main highway) was weakened by a tanker truck fire. They fixed that in less than
3 to 5 days, people can do amazing things when needed and when they put their minds to it. I tried finding links and couldn't it must have been more than 10 years
ago, but I remember it.

[BobG]

It was the Olympics all over again - Carmageddon didn't materialize.

The Los Angeles planners and drivers deserve big kudos for this one. It could have been a nightmare. There was even a soccer game at the Colosseum with about 100K in attendance but it didn't cause any problems.

100k attended a soccer game in the US? That's harder to believe than Carmageddon not materializing!

[Pengwuino]

The Los Angeles planners and drivers deserve big kudos for this one.

Hardly. People simply took the alternate routes.

The real kudos goes to the Parks Department for helping people navigate the LA River.

[Ivan92]

100k attended a soccer game in the US? That's harder to believe than Carmageddon not materializing!
Only in LA haha! There are plenty of soccer players/fans here, sadly its nothing compared to Football... :(

[Ivan Seeking]

100k attended a soccer game in the US? That's harder to believe than Carmageddon not materializing!

Didn't you hear what happened when a Mexican soccer team played a US team at the Colloseum? The crowd was cheering for Mexico! It's a matter of demographics. :biggrin: