405 Los Angeles Carmageddon or disaster simulation?

For those of you ATSters living in the Los Angeles area probably has heard about the upcoming carmageddon event on July 16-17th. The city is closing down on of the busiest highways in the nation!

Daily traffic in L.A. may be worst in the nation, but you ain't seen nothing yet. Suddenly, just a month-and-a-half before the largest closure of the 405 since it became the Westside's clogged lifeline -- carrying about 281,000 cars per day -- L.A. transportation officials have decided to come out and warn the universe of this impending doom.

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But shouldn't this also be used as an emergency disaster simulation also? What if there is a time during an event where people have to move away from the city and the freeways and streets are jammed bumper to bumper? I think there should be studies and observations made during the upcoming weekend

I wouldn't be surprised. It would be a good idea. I normally avoid that freeway at all costs, whenever possible. About the only time i ever use it is to get to LAX.

I agree that it would be an excellent opportunity to study how the fluid dynamics work for that section of LA if S ever hit the fan. But to be honest I don't think they are going to be studying that aspect of shutting down the 405 for two days. it's a 5 lane freeway (10 total) and they are goingto turn it into a 6 lane (12 total) freeway in two days. gotta shut it down and pour asphalt. So I doubt there is any conspiracy. that being said. I have to go past the 405 every evening in rush hour. because everybody on wilshire blvd is trying to get on the freeway it backs up wilshire for miles and my ride home takes an hour and a half. only takes 20 to go to work in the morning when there is no traffic. if shutting down the freeway for two days on a weekend so that it can unclog wilshire, santa monica, olypic, and pico I'm all for it. get me home an hour earlier.

I cant wait to see that horrible mess. That fwy always has soo many collisions. I for one am thankful that i dont work in Westwood/Santa Monica area anymore. I guess living near work sometimes does have its payoffs

Escape from LA 2011?


If you're in that area, stay safe...

Carmageddon: The Times to host live Web chat this afternoon(Watch the archived video chat above)
LATimes

It has been the smoothest sailing on Los Angeles roads in history today. I guess everyone did take the word and stayed home or left town. A lot of people now on the news, radio, twitter tweets are mocking the whole hype about this. I hope this doesn't have a negative effect in the future. What if there was a real emergency? There is also another planned freeway shut down next year...

reply to post by balon0
That's exactly why the answer to the OP's questions of this being a disaster simulation is a resounding "No."

Disasters don't get announced 1 week in advance, and so this shutdown would be a horrible simulation of a disaster scenario because the people planned accordingly, avoided excessive driving, and hence no real problems arose.

Originally posted by blackmetalmist
I cant wait to see that horrible mess. That fwy always has soo many collisions. I for one am thankful that i dont work in Westwood/Santa Monica area anymore. I guess living near work sometimes does have its payoffs

That's one of the worst - isn't it. I used to work at what is now the AT&T center - coming from Manhattan Beach.

My granddaughter's dad lives in Silver Lake - - - I did not volunteer to take her there for the weekend.

My kid works production - - but lucked out with an out of town assignment.