CARMAGEDDON COULD ALSO BE THE TITLE OF THE MOVIE WHERE SEAN BEAN IS SHOT WHILE BEING STRANGLED WHILE DRIVING: Los Angelino thing-throwers: how are you going to survive Carmageddon (for non-Angelinos: the trafficocalpyse resulting from this weekend's three-day shutdown of the 405 freeway between the 10 and the 101, possibly for construction or possibly just because Michael Bay wants a bikini-clad helicopter pilot to drop napalm-soaked dynamite trucks on it)? My guess is that the budget for personal hovercraft rentals at CAA and WME is through the roof.
And non-Angelinos: how would you survive the catastrophic closure of 10 miles of freeway, leaving you only 517 other miles of freeway and 382 miles of traditional highway to get you where you're going, which is nowhere, because you have already been warned to stay inside and away from the deleterious effects of Carmageddon?
Well, I'm lucky because I live in Pasadena so I'm not near the insanity. But I will say that while it is only 10 miles of freeway being shut down, that area of freeway is consistently busy and traffic-filled, so not having it as an option is going to make traffic on alternate routes a pain for anyone who is driving in that area.
ReplyDeleteThat said, they've been warning us about this for MONTHS, including big signs on all freeways, so anyone who gets stuck in any traffic jams because they didn't know it was happening is an idiot.
My initial plan was to avoid going anywhere because Angelinos are bad at driving in the best circumstances, so this is bound to be a problem. But I'm now going to drive from the top of the 110 about 6 miles down to Avenue 52 to hang out at my brother's pool. I'm a wild one, living life on the edge, I know.
Also, the Jet Blue Carmaggedon $4 flight between Burbank & Long Beach is marketing genius.
I think the whole Carmageddon thing is overblown - I have a feeling it's going to be way less awful than everyone is making it out to be. And I get a half-day at work out of it!
ReplyDeleteI am getting married this weekend and my sibs-in-law from LA better show me their gratitude. Then again, I am getting married in Pittsburgh, where there are routinely contruction nightmares that Carmageddon only aspires to be, despite our massively smaller population.
ReplyDeleteRobin, I used to live in LA, so all I can say is that they could build a concrete wall across every freeway in Pittsburgh and the traffic would not move any slower than rush hour on the 405, 710, or 605. What I don't get is why this is going to be any worse. Everybody who has to drive from Beverly Hills to Studio City already doesn't take the 405. That's why Laurel Canyon and Coldwater Canyon and Sepulveda are gridlocked all day long. I'm convinced that the only people who ever took the section of the 405 that is closing were tourists.
ReplyDeleteWell, I'd immediately pull out my CTA card.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations in advance. Weather's looking great for this weekend.
ReplyDeleteOh, yeah, congratulations! I imagine your avatar picture is you going "fuck yeah! getting married!"
ReplyDeleteMarketing genius, perhaps, but of highly questionable justification from an environmental perspective.
ReplyDeleteI also don't think it will be that bad. People are so scared I think it should be relatively clear. Sucks for the people in to visit for the weekend, though, especially if they were going to the Getty Center.
ReplyDeleteIsaac: While it's not as bad as the 405, please don't underrate construction in Pittsburgh. There are a lot of narrow bridges, a lot of narrow highways and PennDOT loves to just store their shiny orange barrels on random stretches of road they don't plan on working on for months. 28 coming into Pittsburgh from the north is going to be a mess for years.
But that being said, yeah, I'd still trade Burgh traffic for the 405 any day.
Yes, congrats!
ReplyDeleteI agree! I live right next to the part of the 405 that is being shut down, and for some reason I can't bring myself to be worried about it. I'm going to work a full day, but I expect half my office to be gone by the afternoon, if they come in at all.
ReplyDeleteI'll tell you what, no way does this alleged carmageddon stop me from venturing out to see Harry Potter on Saturday afternoon.
Same in the Philly area - for all the bad pub SEPTA gets, it's got great multimodal coverage. From my house in the burbs, I could hop on a bus, high speed line, or regional rail, all departing from a range of the end of my block to 5 minutes away, and get anywhere in Center City Philadelphia or down to the South Philly sports complex within about 30-45 minutes. I can change to the PATCO line in Center City to go to the Camden waterfront (Aquarium, minor league ballpark, concert venue) or visit relatives in South Jersey. I can also take SEPTA to Amtrak in Philly, or NJ Transit in Trenton, to get to NYC or the rest of the NE Corridor. Or, I could take SEPTA to the Airport and fly far away (as in, longer than the distance between Burbank and Long Beach). Public transit can be pretty sweet.
ReplyDeleteCongrats and have fun!
ReplyDeleteIt once took me 4 hours 30 minutes to get from 101/405 to downtown Long Beach without a single traffic report to explain it.
ReplyDeleteIn the two or three years when I was going to Orange County multiple times every week, the trip home at rush hour on the 405 was always 2-2.5 hours. I tried everything. 5-10. 5-91-110-105-La Cienega. 405-605-105-La Cienega. 405-710-5-10. I mean everything. I once took PCH all the way home from Orange County, and that's basically surface streets with stoplights and heavy traffic once you hit the south bay. Everything was worse. What makes the 405 so bad is that it is paradoxically the slowest freeway in the world but also unquestionably your best option.
ReplyDeleteI have to be at LAX Saturday night. I live in Orange County. Still not 100% sure what to do. Might just have a friend drop me off at the Long Beach Metro station - we can go up PCH and avoid freeways and she doesn't have to drive all the way to LA.
ReplyDeleteI'm also thinking it's not going to be as bad as everybody says but because I have a flight to catch I have to pretend like it will be. I'd have flown out Friday afternoon had I known when I booked my tix at the beginning of the year. Oh well!
first world blues
ReplyDeleteMazel tov! *throws confetti*
ReplyDeleteYay! Congrats and have a blast!
ReplyDeleteI have to cross the 405 (and Sepulveda) after work to get to a Harry Potter screening at 7:30 in Bev Hills, so I'm very concerned about my travel time. I HAVE to be at the screening by 6:45 in order to get a decent seat. At least my boss won't be there to see me leave early if that's what I decide I have to do. She lives in Orange County, so is not coming in, for fear of not being able to get home.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I like to spell it "Angeleno," but I know this is a point of contention for some.
Shouldn't you be fine? They don't close the 405 until the 10, so you should be fine to LAX. If anything, there will be less traffic because of the closure. Right?
ReplyDeleteCongratulations Robin (and Groom)!
ReplyDeleteThat would make sense except this is traffic in Los Angeles - it never makes sense! ;-)
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping for the best and preparing for the worst!
Congrats!!!!! Have the best time!
ReplyDeleteCongrats!
ReplyDeleteAngeleno is certainly right and I am wrong.
ReplyDeleteIsaac:
ReplyDeleteThanks you for your perspective, if not your spelling. As a native Angelena who remembers the city before the 405 connected Westwood with Encino, the Sepulveda Pass was always the greatest and fastest way to get between these two points and, yeah, and Topanga, Coldwater and LAurel Canyons are scenic and low-stress ways of getting through the Santa Monica mountains and much much nicer than the 405 WHICH IS NEVER NOT awful.