E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
Reed Saxon / AP
This July 16, 2011, file photo shows Interstate 405 free of traffic, seen looking south from the Skirball Drive bridge, as the demolition of two lanes Mulholland Drive bridge continue in Los Angeles at dawn. "Carmageddon II: The Sequel" is coming to one of the nation's most crowded freeways later this month.
LOS ANGELES -- "Carmageddon II" — the sequel — is coming to one of the nation's most crowded freeways, and authorities are hoping its subtitle won't be "The Traffic Strikes Back."
Transportation officials say what they would like to see during the last weekend of September is a rerun of last year's two-day closure, when hundreds of thousands of motorists dodged doomsday predictions by staying away until the busy, 10-mile stretch of Interstate 405 reopened. It was one of the lightest freeway traffic weekends anyone in Los Angeles could remember.
Hopes are high that next weekend will have the same happy result, as businesses and residents prepare to avoid the roadway that must close again so work can be completed on a bridge.
At Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, just outside the Carmageddon Zone, officials plan to house as many as 300 doctors, nurses and other staff members in dorms at nearby hotels so nobody will have trouble getting to work.
Some patients, including women in the latter stages of complicated pregnancies, are being encouraged to check in before the freeway closes at 12:01 a.m. Sept. 29.
"Everybody, including myself, will be here to man the entire event, just to make sure everything goes safely for our patients and staff," says Shannon O'Kelley, the hospital's chief operations officer.
A group of art enthusiasts, meanwhile, formed "Artmageddon," featuring activities at dozens of museums and art-house theaters and listing them on the website artmageddonla.com. People are encouraged to walk or bike.
The UCLA campus, with about 41,000 students, has emergency traffic diversion plans in place. In Santa Monica, just down the road, a new emergency operations center opened last month. Authorities say every major transit, law enforcement and emergency services agency in the area has been cooperating in making contingency plans.
In the meantime, just what should people do over the weekend when they will hopefully be too afraid to pull out of their driveways?
Watch US News videos on NBCNews.com
The city of Santa Barbara has a proposed solution: Leave your car at home and come visit us.
The Car Free Santa Barbara Project is offering Carmageddon II special discounts on train service to Santa Barbara as well as hotels, activities and restaurants, according to The Los Angeles Times.
Mary Boyd, manager of the program, which is sponsored by the Santa Barbara County Air Pollution District , told the Times: “We invite Los Angeles-area residents and visitors to use this freeway closure and traffic as a chance to think outside the car.”
Or stay put. "Eat, Shop and Play Locally," advises the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority, reciting its official Carmageddon II slogan.
The agency is partnering with hundreds of restaurants, tourists attractions and other venues to offer discounts to people who can show they used mass transit to get there.
If thousands of people hadn't stayed home on a mid-July weekend last year, authorities say they might have caused a traffic backup so massive it could have spread to connecting freeways, gridlocking the entire city highway system. The result, "Carmageddon," would have been miles and miles of idling cars filled with thousands and thousands of angry people.
"The risk factors are exactly the same as they were last year, so nothing has changed in terms of the heartburn that traffic agency people are feeling right now," says Dave Sotero, a spokesman for the transportation authority.
It's not just any freeway being shut down, but one that even on weekends, when traffic is relatively light, can carry a half-million vehicles. It's also the one that links the city's San Fernando Valley, where 1.7 million people live, to its dense, urbanized West Side and its beaches.
Stay informed with the latest headlines; sign up for our newsletter
As they did for the first Carmageddon, officials have been posting flashing freeway signs for weeks warning people all over the state to stay away. On Labor Day weekend, people driving in and out of the desert resort of Palm Springs, 100 miles to the east, began seeing the signs.
"We wanted to get that image of what the stakes were by frankly alarming the public, getting the public's attention, grabbing everybody by the lapels and saying, 'This is a real project that is going to cause a real disaster if we aren't prepared,'" says veteran Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who is credited with publicly uttering the term Carmageddon.
Although Yaroslavsky says he first heard the word from an aide, he jokes that it will be cited at the top of his obituary as one his greatest achievements.
The freeway is scheduled to reopen at 5 a.m. Monday, Oct. 1, just ahead of the morning rush hour.
Last year it opened 17 hours early, but Sotero says not to expect that again because there's more work this time.
When all the work in the area is completed toward the end of next year, there will be a new, wider and seismically safer bridge crossing the freeway at the city's scenic Mulholland Drive.
The 405 itself will also be wider, making room for a carpool lane through the Sepulveda Pass over the Santa Monica Mountains, where traffic notoriously clogs almost all the time.
If the freeway doesn't reopen on time, that's when Carmageddon would really kick in.
While they insist they don't expect that to happen, officials say they will be ready if it does.
NBC News staff contributed to this report from The Associated Press.
More content from NBCNews.com:
- Bronx Zoo mauling: Man reportedly wanted to be 'one with the tiger'
- Sheriff: Mother kills 2 kids, then hangs herself
- Florida politicians help Ryan woo Hispanics
- For first time, gay marriage may win statewide vote
- Cops: Shoplifter kills Wal-Mart security employee, then self
- Video: Model on airline dog death: ‘Something dramatic needs to be done’
Follow US News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook
Leave a Comment:
Sorry but the real carmageddon is when the San Andreas lets go...very soon.
People in Ca. created the urban sprawl, so live with it.
Why is this national news. We have our own road issues here in the mid west. Get over it.
So when are we going to understand that the zoning shift created in the '50s to MAKE people buy cars now needs to be un-done so we can actually walk/take a bus to work/shop/socialize/live?
L.A. and all cities need "Squeezzz Lane" to save time
http://contest.techbriefs.com/component/content/article/2756
L.A. and all cities need to drop the failure that is the automobile. As more people move into cities cars become more of a problem. Best to abandon them now and look for REAL solutions, rather than a temporary band-aide.
John, did you sell your car and start walking yet?
Jon, John is that skateboarder you just hit with the right side of your Buick? Did GM arrange to destroy mass transit in LA last century?
Jon, is that your Buick that just hit John on a skateboard with it's right side? Did GM destroy mass transit in LA in the last century buying up and destroying rail and bus lines, see the world today in your Chevrolet
What a quaint thought! Have you ever been to California? LA? No? Well let me shed some light on it for you buddy, life in CA without a car is virtually impossible. Let's examine the alternatives, shall we?
Public transportation is a crapshoot as far as reliability and the hours in which it runs. The majority of public transportation in CA starts running at 5 or 6 am and stops at 12 am and is rarely on schedule, which means that those who need to be at work on time cannot rely on the system, nor can those who work non-traditional hours, like those that work graveyard shifts. So you have millions of people right there who must rely on their vehicles in order to remain employed. The number of passenger trains in LA is limited and the places where they go is limited even further, so the majority of people cannot rely on trains either. Also, most bus lines prohibit a person carrying on more than two or three bags, so grocery shopping on public transportation is essentially disallowed, unless you shop daily.
Taking a cab when the buses are not running is out of the question because it is prohibitively expensive; to take a cab from the San Fernando Valley to the West Side in LA would easily cost upwards of $40, one way. Multiply that by two (since most people like to go home from work each night), and again by 5 and you're expecting people to spend upwards of $450 A WEEK, just in transportation to and from work. It just isn't feasible. Factor in the fact that people also need to get their kids to school (when school buses are not provided, as many districts are cutting transportation costs, especially at the middle and high school levels, to combat budget cuts) trips to the grocery store and the various other errands that the average American has to run most weeks, and the costs just balloon.
Walking and or Biking would seem to be a great option in CA, the weather is great 80% of the time, and you rarely have to deal with such things as snow and ice, right? WRONG. In LA especially, but for the majority of CA, the state was not designed for walking, things are spread miles apart, even within one city. While many neighborhoods might have a convenience store or 7-11 within walking distance, few have an actual grocery store, Wal-Mart or similar store within walking distance, not to mention the difficulty of carrying home a week's worth of groceries for a family of 4 (the average in CA), no matter the distance.
You simply need a car when living in CA. It's not like NY, where even at 4 in the morning a person can get on the train, subway or bus and get to where they need to go, relatively quickly, with few schedule variations. Not having a car limits one's ability to find and retain employment, as well as handle the grocery shopping and the usual tasks that come with raising a family or living on one's own as an adult.
I know this because I lived in CA for nearly 20 years, before returning to my roots on the East Coast. I lived in Palm Springs, but frequently went to LA for work and play. I hear that the public transportation situation is improving somewhat as LA strives to compete with NY on the availability and consistency of mass transit, however, last I was there (which was about 6 months ago) it was still severely lacking.
let me get this straight...L.A. as in ... LOS ANGELES, California......PREPARED for something? ANY frigging thing.....bawhwaaaaahahahahaha....... man nobody... but nobody writes comedy like the folks here at msnbc...........:)
nah...you're way better ☺
No traffic in Gumshoe. No wonder.
As with the 'first one'. Nothing to report. Move along - you're wasting bandwidth...
I remember when I grew up in LA, during the seventies, it wasn't that bad. Oh CRAP I'M OLD, sorry.
Carmageddon II: Electric Boogaloo
Was John Travolta in that?
Live by the car, die by the car. How many drivers advocate for public transportation projects? Almost none. Instead, car addicts would rather see new road building projects. It's absurd to see so many solo commuters puttering to work in a car. Once again, America is behind the curve. China invests in trains that travel at 180 mph; America repairs old bridges and fills in potholes. Great. I don't own a car anymore, and hope to never own one again. Cars are the biggest waste of money, a product you pay thousands of dollars for that depreciates the minute you sign the papers for it. Even when the roads aren't jammed, driving in America sucks, because 9 out of 10 people drive like willful, angry children.
Do you want a public transportation project or do you want lower taxes? Enough said.
What's nice about a car is not having to share the same place as opinionated, incorrect, dangerous folks. You listen to your radio, have your coffee and buttered roll, enjoy the amenities and eventually get where you're going. You can even smoke if you got 'em.
@ Tom - What are you smoking in your car? Driving a car is by far more dangerous than nearly every activity you do in daily life, including taking public transportation. Approximately 40,000 people die in car accidents every year in the U.S. Many more are injured. Apparently, you're doing a whole bunch of other things while driving, like eating, drinking, and smoking. Glad I don't have to share the road with you.
@Sam Adams. Not "enough said." Your argument is so simplistic. Can't you imagine spending more money on public transportation projects, and less money on other things in the budget?
Santa Barbara's invitation to visit them on the train is hilariously ironic, because most Angelenos would have to drive on the FREEWAY to get to a train station. Everyone will just stay home like they did last time. It's just two days.
Another tempest in a teapot,if the traffic in socal is gridlocked for two days will it make a difference anywhere else on the planet?
I don't drive in there anymore so could give a @!$%# if it stays a parking lot.
gollie: Complaints about traffic have always struck me as ironic; I mean, a complainer bellyaches about a problem that he/she is contributing to! Good for you for getting out. LA's problems are only newsworthy in that they may predict the future of commuting for other locales.
The Transportation Dept. did a good job the last time and folks followed directions and stayed away and I think the same thing will happen this time.
And aren't trains, especially subways inherently dangerous in such a mountainous, earthquake-prone area? Like when they cross over or under the various waterways? Or go very deep or on viaducts?
Seriously, don't get my hopes up by making me think this is going to be about that fun pc game from 1998. I thought maybe they were releasing it on xbox live or something.
Everybody blames air pollution on the internal combustion engine, and rightly so. But nobody wants to give up their personal filthy cooking and heating habits when they burn wood and charcoal to heat their homes and cook their meals. Wood combustion is the most toxic form of air pollution that the average Angelino is exposed to.
Here in Los Angeles and beyond there is a dirty secret LAAQMD keeps from the people. There has been a massive explosion in the number of people who cook with charcoal and wood on a regular almost daily basis and they thus further destroy the quality of breathing air for unsuspecting millions in a city with some of the most unhealthy breathing air in the nation already.
Burning wood and charcoal to heat your home and cook your meals exposes your neighbors to the most toxic and health hazardous form of air pollution there is in an urban area, EVEN MORE HEALTH DESTROYING THAN ROADSIDE EMISSIONS.
Because there is no money in it for LAAQMD (through fines) they ignore the most toxic form of air pollution the average Los Angeles urban resident is exposed to. They hide behind "rule 402".
The leaders at LAAQMD are masters of deceit and professional liars to boot. They posses an attitude that Los Angeles residents are nothing but subhuman scum who do not deserve healthy breathing air, and they make sure that they don't get any.
Trusting LAAQMD to provide safe and healthy breathing air for Los Angeles residents is like trusting a fox to guard the chickens, but worse. Much worse.
IF YOU TRAVEL TO LOS ANGELES BRING YOUR OWN AIR AND A GAS MASK
SMOKE POLLUTION EVERYWHERE