Carmageddon

Car-mageddon. Laugh if you want, but it's been blasted all over the news out here. It's no joke. From transportation authorities to celebs, such as Ashton Kutcher and Kourtney Kardashian tweeting about it, the message is clear, stay home! Don't travel! The closure of the 405 is sure to bring -even more- mass chaos to transportation in LALA-land. *Awesome. 


If you've never been to Los Angeles and haven't experienced the concrete hell that is the 405, let me share some fun facts...

• It is the busiest and most congested freeway in the US *Awesome.
• The 405 (aka San Diego Freeway) congestion problems are legendary *Awesome.
• Jokes about the 405: the interstate was named so because traffic moves at "four or five miles an hour," or drivers need "four or five hours" to get anywhere *Awesome.
• The 405 interchanges with the Ventura Freeway, or 101, and with the Santa Monica Freeway, or I-10, and each of these routes consistently rank among the five most congested freeway interchanges in the US *Awesome.
• Average speeds, truly, can hit four to five miles an hour during rush hours - there are times my Garmin is clocking me in around 1.8 miles per hour. You know you're CRAWLING when your traveling at speeds that require a decimal!  *Awesome.

Here's the 405 on any given day. *Awesome.

Signs like these are currently all over the city. And, after this flashes, the next thing to appear is "EXPECT BIG DELAY" *Awesome.

Just makes you want to jump in your car and go for a joy-ride, huh?

"So, "what's the point of these stats," you're asking. This weekend the 405 will be closed. We're not talking a few lanes coned off here and there. We're talking the whole thing, between the 101 and the 10. If that doesn't clock on the radar, refer to bullet point number 4, two of the OTHER busiest freeway interchanges in the nation will be effected in a BIG WAY. 


So, imagine all that traffic in the photo above, and picture all those people trying to find other ways of getting around L.A. Again, awesome. What this means... Traffic in the entire city will be terrible. All those people who generally use the 405 will now overflow onto all the surface streets, and alternate freeway routes. What this means for me... No trip to Six Flags. Or anywhere else, for that matter. Boo! 


Let's hope by Monday, when the freeway is supposed to re-open, all will be well and normal in the world of ridiculous commuting in L.A. Maybe next weekend I'll get my self-induced adrenaline trip to Six Flags. *sigh*