Carmageddon L.A.

Tow-Away Zones to be Established on Streets Adjacent to 405 Freeway

2011-07-15T23:40:02Z

The closure of the 405 Freeway this weekend is not only affecting traffic, but some parking as well. Los Angeles officials have placed "Tow Away, No Stopping Anytime" signs on a handful of streets in Sherman Oaks, Encino and Bel Air:

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Ventura Boulevard between Balboa Blvd. and Sherman Oaks Avenue - South Side

Ventura Boulevard between Noble Avenue and Sepulveda Boulevard - North Side

Sepulveda Boulevard between Greenleaf Street and Valley Vista Boulevard - Both Sides

Sepulveda Boulevard between Valley Vista Boulevard and the 405 Freeway - West Side

Sepulveda Boulevard between Moraga Drive and Ovada Place - East Side

The restrictions begin at 12:01 a.m. on Saturday, July 16th and last through Monday at an unspecified time.

Towed vehicles will be taken to one of the city's Official Police Garage sites. To locate and retrieve a towed vehicle, call 818 752-5100 or check www.opglaviic.com.

Prediction: 'Carmageddon' Will Not be that Bad

2011-07-15T21:35:44Z

Don't get me wrong. There will be traffic. This is Los Angeles after all. But I'm going to go out on a limb here and say "carmageddon" will not end in any major inconvenience to the city as a whole.

There are going to be headaches for some, visitors will likely be caught off guard, many businesses will unfortunately be set back and I do have major concerns for medical care institutions on the Westisde, but I have faith that most all Angelenos will heed officials' warnings to stay away.

]]> Two years ago Michael Jackson died. His public funeral was held downtown and city officials formed a public mantra: if you do not have a ticket, do not come down here. It worked. When I emerged from the subway that morning to cover the events for LAist, the crowds on the streets were equivalent to a busy night on the town, as if a Lakers game and a couple concerts were simultaneously occurring at the Staples Center and L.A. Live. Back in 1984, people also listened during two weeks of the summer Olympic games. Traffic was great, observers say.

If we could do it in the past, we can do it again. And if for some reason we happen to fail this weekend, we'll have another chance next year to do better. That's because the 405 Freeway again will be shut down to complete the project.

The photo used on this post is by Flickr user i be GINZ. it was used under a Creative Commons License.

Exit Thru The Gift Shop

2011-07-15T17:35:00Z

Whether or not Carmageddon lives up to its apocalyptic height, Los Angeles residents are at the very least eager to embrace it with the enthusiasm of a pet rock. Case in point: the large number of commemorative 405 closure t-shirts that have popped up online.

At Zazzle and Cafe Press, two print on demand merchandise sites, Angelenos can choose from nearly a dozen different designs, most with the recurring (and presumptuous) line, "I Survived Carmageddon." Some are more optimistic, including one that Spicoli would agree with. It reads, "The 405 Its Closed. Let's Go To Surf!" (sic). Another tries to be helpful, offering a convoluted alternate route to avoid the 405 that includes taking the 10 to Jacksonville, FL, through Utah, and eventually back over to the 134. Some of these same logos are printed to bumper stickers, coffee mugs, and water bottles.

To sell the "I survived the Carmageddon" t-shirt he designed, Matthew Wilcox, a Los Angeles record company owner, nabbed the domain name carmageddontshirt.com, which redirects to his page on Spreadshirt, another print on demand site.

The question remains: on Monday, will all this stuff go on sale for 50%?

Video: A Look Back at the Non-Traffic of the 1984 Olympics

2011-07-15T01:08:26Z

Will the so-called "carmageddon" really be that bad? If officials took the lessons from the 1984 traffic plan, then things might just be fine. That's because, as two of our commentators have already pointed out, that when the 1984 Olympics occurred here in Los Angeles the "Black Friday" of traffic never surfaced on the streets.

"We were made afraid that the entire freeway system would fail. It didn't," said D.J. Waldie.

]]> "1984 was the year of catastrophic traffic that never was," added Erin Aubry Kaplan.

For some visual proof, this SoCal Rewind feature from SoCal Connected will show you how it worked.

Paratransit Riders Will Not Get Travel Priority During 405 Closure

2011-07-14T22:50:27Z

Disabled travelers who rely on paratransit services in Los Angeles County are hearing the same message everyone is when it comes to this weekend's closure of the 405 Freeway: "plan ahead, avoid the area or stay home."

]]> "Access is delivering the exact save message as Metro to all of our riders," said Shelly Verrinder, the Executive Director of Access Services, the second-largest transit agency in the region. "Access vehicles will not have any travel priority in the impacted area, so it's important that riders prepare for what could be very long delays. Riders should make sure they have adequate supplies of food, water, medicine, or medical testing equipment on their person each time they board an Access vehicle."

Access will set up a special command center at its headquarters to assist vehicles with re-routing and alternate routes. Riders are encouraged to call the customer service center at (800) 827-0829 for updates and delay information.

The agency, which was founded under the Americans with Disabilities Act, provides curb-to-curb service for eligible paratransit riders throughout the region, provided that pick-ups and drop-offs are within 3/4 of a mile of any fixed-route public bus route or Metro rail station during the hours systems are operational.

Which is Really Faster between Burbank and Long Beach: a Flight or Public Transit?

2011-07-13T22:34:14Z

If you're really worried about that drive between Burbank and Long Beach in your car this "carmageddon" weekend, Jet Blue has a solution for you. For $4 each way--"Advertised fare includes all taxes and fees," says their website--you can take a 20-minute flight on Saturday.

Can we say marketing gimmick? Yes, but it's worth pointing out that the route is pretty much covered by public transit.

]]> From Metro's North Hollywood Red Line station, about 3.5 miles from the Burbank Airport, to the Long Beach, where each of its four stations are about an equidistant 4 miles away, takes around an hour to one hour and twenty minutes to travel (other options exist, too, such as Amtrak's Pacific Surfliner that stops at a station next to Burbank Airport. Metrolink trains also stop there, but not on the weekends).

Obviously 20 minutes of flight time beats one hour of ride time, but with flying there's always getting to and from the airport, checking in, security, boarding and taxiing. And, of course, there are many variables as train stations and airports are not always starting points or final destinations. And yes, with public transit, there's transferring from train to train and, if busy, standing-only room. With both, a delay would not be surprising.

One's not necessarily better than the other because it really comes down to personal choice, which should really be the lesson here.

The full closure of the 405 freeway is about widening it, ultimately creating a carpool lane along a 10-mile northbound stretch. That gives drivers more opportunities to make a choice when choosing how to commute: solo or with someone else to use the carpool lane. The extra lane will add capacity, but will not necessarily equate to shaving minutes off a commute.

The same goes for increasing public transportation capacity, such as digging a tunnel between the valley and the Westside. It might not mean a faster commute--hopefully it's competitive--but it's another option on the menu of getting from one point to another.

As for me, if I need to get from my Studio City home to Long Beach this weekend, I'll be riding the rails. One major benefit for me is that I won't have to worry about missing any airport deadlines. Trains run every 15 minutes or so on the weekends meaning I can travel when I please.

Added Note: As some people have mentioned after this post was published--specifically in regards to "One's not necessarily better than the other because ..."--the carbon footprint of the flight, especially such a short one, is very high.

Gridlock Escape? There's an App for That

2011-07-13T01:40:00Z

If there are two things we can all agree on about Angelenos, it's that no matter how much they're warned about traffic they'll always take a drive, and that they love playing on their phones while driving. Fortunately, just in time for this weekend's impending gridlock, there's Waze, a free smartphone application made for drivers like them.

"It provides the best alternative to staying at home or riding a bike," says Di-Ann Eisnor, VP Community and Product for the software, which hit the US in November, 2009.

Waze provides real time traffic info compiled largely from it's users' actual driving activities. In addition to tracking where they are and how fast they're moving, the app also accepts and reports on traffic jams, police stops, and road construction.

]]> A look at a current route will then show not only where traffic is moving or stopped, but also other hazards drivers should account for, including speed traps.

"It puts everything we're doing to the test," Eisnor says of this weekend's 405 closure. Waze is looking to expanded its estimated 200,000 users in Los Angeles alone by teaming up with ABC7 to provide traffic info, as well as tracking thirteen additional alternate "carmageddon-resistant" routes along and around the canyons surrounding the Mulholland Pass.

If you're steering clear of the roads, you can keep an eye on the info provided by the application from safety of your desktop here.

Eisnor says that 10% if Israelis are already using Waze, where the application launched a full year prior before coming to the US. Internationally, the software has been downloaded by 4.5 million drivers.

Carmageddon Lowdown: What You Need to Know

2011-07-02T02:40:10Z

WHAT: A 10-mile stretch of the I-405 through the Sepulveda Pass will be completely closed for construction in mid-July. Officials expect extreme traffic congestion on surface streets and freeways within Los Angeles County. Commuters face multi-hour trip delays.

WHEN: For 53 hours over the weekend of July 16 and 17.

Countdown Creator Progreat free widgetsWidgetboxMore info

Closures

Ramps as early as 7 p.m. day before.
Lanes one at a time as early as 10 p.m.
Full closure by midnight.

Reopening

Monday, July 18 at 5 a.m.
Ramps and connectors by 6 a.m.
North half of Mulholland Bridge, one lane each way, will remain open after the weekend.

]]> WHERE: The I-405 will be closed...

Northbound from I-10 to US 101 (10 miles)
Southbound from US 101 to Getty Center Dr. ramps (4 miles)
Mulholland Bridge will also be closed.
Haskell off-ramps on US 101 also closed.

WHY: Part of a $1 billion improvement project that will widen the Mulholland Bridge and add a carpool lane to the 405 through the Sepulveda Pass.

WHO: Joint project of Metro and Caltrans. Weekend traffic will be coordinated through a Unified Command - LAPD, LAFD, CHP, LADOT, Metro and Caltrans. The contractor is Kiewit Infrastructure West Co.

GETTING AROUND:
By Car
Sepulveda Blvd. will be open, but authorities suggest using it for local access only. Expect extreme delays. Click here for a map of suggested alternate routes.

Metrolink
Seven additional round-trips planned for the Ventura County Line. Nine additional trips on Antelope Valley Line. Pick up a $10 weekend pass to ride any Metrolink train as many times as you want between Friday 7 p.m. and Sunday 11:59 p.m.

Subway
Metro Red and Purple Lines will run approximately every 10 minutes all weekend, with six- and four-car trains respectively.

Free Rides
No fare will be charged over the weekend of July 16-17 on the Metro Red, Purple and Orange lines.

Extended Metro Bus Service

Line 2 - Metro Local and Limited - Downtown L.A. - Pacific Palisades via Sunset Blvd.	15 buses added
Line 150 - Metro Local - Canoga Park - Universal City Station via Ventura Blvd. / Northridge via Reseda Blvd.	4 buses added
Line 534 - Metro Express - Malibu - Washington/Fairfax via Pacific Coast Hwy.	5 buses added
Line 704 Metro Rapid - Downtown L.A. - Santa Monica via Santa Monica Blvd.	8 buses added
Line 720 Metro Rapid - Santa Monica - Commerce via Wilshire Blvd. & Whittier Blvd.	5 buses added
Line 733 - Metro Rapid - Downtown L.A. - Santa Monica via Venice Blvd.	8 buses added
Line 761 - Metro Rapid - Pacoima - Westwood via Van Nuys Blvd.	8 buses added**
Line 901 - Metro Orange Line	8 buses added

**Note: Buses will be using Sepulveda Blvd. between Ventura Blvd. and Getty Center Dr.

ADVICE FROM THE AUTHORITIES: Plan ahead, avoid the area, or stay home.

Official outreach efforts so far:

4.6m
Print Ads

450
Radio Ads

2m
Online Ads

> 6,000
Orgs Getting Email Blasts

Authorities have created nearly $1 million worth of ads total, and they have employed Caltrans message signs on freeways in Los Angeles and in other counties throughout the state, all to prepare the public for the closure weekend.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Call the project hotline at (213) 922-3665
Email I405@metro.net
Visit www.metro.net/405
Connect with the 405 project on Facebook
Follow @I_405 on Twitter
Sign up for direct alerts at Nixle

NEXT STEP: Reconstruction of the south half of Mulholland Bridge is expected to take 11 months. The I-405 will be closed again at that time for the demolition and reconstruction of the north half of the bridge. Final project completion on the 405 improvement is expected sometime in 2013.

Survival Guide

2011-07-01T23:00:00Z

If you're looking for something to do during the weekend of Carmageddon (July 15-17), here's a list of ideas that may be local to you.

Car-mageddon.com is a clearinghouse where you can find or post discounts on food and drinks, survival tips and events to help get you through the weekend.

Folks in Santa Monica will be able to go to their beloved Farmers' Market on Saturday, July 16, but the farmers will have to drive in a day early to avoid the 405 shutdown. Many of them will need a place to stay for the weekend. Check out Host a Farmer if you want to help.

The website of LA County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky offers 53 Ways to turn 53 hours of Carmageddon fever into good communal karma.

]]> Walk Along the 405 from the Valley: Who needs cars to get over Sepulveda Pass anyway? A walk is scheduled to go from the Valley to the Mulholland Bridge and back along Sepulveda. Meet on Saturday, July 16 at 9:00 a.m. on the south side of Kester and Ventura, near Mel's Drive-In in Sherman Oaks.

Dinosaur Hall opens July 16 at the LA County Natural History Museum. The new world-class permanent exhibit lets you wander around and sometimes even underneath the astonishing fossils in their 14,000 square foot gallery space. You can buy tickets online.

Little Tokyo Design Week offers symposia, outdoor film screenings, fashion shows, product demonstrations, performances, and music in all the interesting meeting and plaza spaces of Little Tokyo. On Saturday there is a Pecha Kucha night - where young designers showcase their work by presenting 20 images, each shown in 20 seconds, July 14 - 17

The Beach Comes to Hollywood on July 16, 5PM at the Egyptian Theatre. Ukuleles, polynesian dancers, a tiki fashion show, food & drink for sale. Where's my parrot shirt?

King Lear, Shakespeare by the Sea. photo by Mickey Elliot" src="http://www.kcet.org/updaily/carmageddon_la/assets/images/sbts_king_lear_web.jpg" width="194" height="238" class="mt-image-right" style="float: right; margin: 0 30px 0 20px 20px;" />Griffith Park Free Shakespeare Festival, the Independent Shakespeare Co. performs under the stars at the site of the old Griffith Park zoo. Check website for directions. No seats, so bring a blanket or lawn chair. See Hamlet July 15 & 16 at 7 pm; Merry Wives of Windsor July 17 at 7 pm.

Shakespeare by the Sea, performances of King Lear on July 15 in Manhattan Beach; Much Ado About Nothing on July 16 in Manhattan Beach and on July 17 in Rancho Palos Verdes. All shows are free and start at 7 pm.

Orange County Fair, Costa Mesa. July 15, 16 & 17 til midnight, this year's theme? "Let's Eat!" Enough said.

Dance Downtown Learn how to shake it, move it and groove it under the stars with live music/DJ and beginner dance lessons. Music Center Plaza, July 15 6:30pm-10pm free

Raymond Chandlers Los Angeles, Bungalows. Crime. Hollywood. Blondes. Vets. Smog. Death. Four hour bus tour by Esotouric into "the secret heart of Los Angeles." Leaves Clifton Cafeteria at noon July 16. Reserve online.

Brazilian singer and lyricist Katia Moraes free concert LACMA, Hancock Park, 7/16 5 pm, free

TMZ Hollywood Tour - It's a show on wheels offering clubs, restaurants, hilarious stories and celebrity hotspots. July 16 & 17, 4 times per day. Tours depart from the Starline terminal at the Chinese Theater located at 6925 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles

Mary Star of the Sea Fiesta Port/Long Beach/San Pedro Carnival rides, bingo, raffles, food, fun 7/15, 16, 17 free

MarchFourth Marching Band A mobile big band spectacular, think Duke Ellington meets Sgt. Pepper with stilt-walkers, dancing girls, flag twirlers, clown antics, and acrobatics - Memorial Park in Pasadena, 7/15 at 7 pm, free.

Outfest 2011: Under the Stars at the Ford - An outdoor screening series of L.A.'s longest running film festival, including the annual sing-along July 15, 16, 17.

Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 An evening of funky, soulful, driving African rhythms. July 15 8pm Grand Performances, 350 S. Grand Ave, free

Congolese-Belgian singer/rapper Baloji and his band plus Canadian-born singer/songwriter Tasneem, July 16 8pm, Grand Performances, 350 S. Grand Ave, free

Fleetwood Macbeth - classic tale of Macbeth and the music of Fleetwood Mac by LA's inimitable Troubadour Theater Company. A "classic Troubie mash-up of the Bard's Macbeth and the rocking sound of Fleetwood Mac" at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts July 15, 16, and 17.

Renegade Craft Fair, 200 artists, handmade goods, crafting activities and food trucks! Los Angeles State Historic Park, 1245 North Spring Street, Los Angeles, CA, 7/16&17 11a-7p free

Old Pasadena Film Festival, the largest free outdoor film festival in Southern California. July 15, 16, 17 - One Colorado Courtyard, 41 Hugus Alley free

Reflections on the Harbor: Our Stories and Memories. Gallery exhibitions plus storytelling, workshops, dance, music and theatre. At Angels Gate Cultural Center, in San Pedro. July 15, 16 11am to 5pm.

1984: The Year of Catastrophic Traffic that Never Was

2011-07-01T22:20:00Z

1984 was the year of catastrophic traffic that never was. The summer Olympics promised L.A. a permanent boost in its global status while incurring no debt, but it also promised the kind of hellish, round-the-clock traffic that would make a typical rush hour look like a walk--or a drive--in the park. For all of Tom Bradley's effusions about what hosting the Olympics would mean to us, it was clear that as the time approached, people were thinking less about the deeper meaning and more about the street-level consequences of staging high-profile events in many venues that generated traffic on normal days. The idea of some giant event landing on L.A. like an alien and disrupting its unique sense of highway entitlement for two weeks was for many people as scary as the Olympics themselves were exciting.

]]> I took all the dire predictions with more than a grain of salt and an even bigger sense of remove. Sure, the Olympics were coming to town, but were they really coming to my part of town? I had just graduated from UCLA and was living at home in Inglewood while I figured out my next move. Nobody I knew in the neighborhood or in the vicinity was too revved up about the Olympics--curiosity was as far as they went. Even though events would take place at the Coliseum and other sites in South Central proper, the general feeling was that the whole affair would be big and impressive, but it would mean very little to inner-city residents, many of whom were close enough to watch proceedings from their porches. So accustomed had South Central grown to being left out of civic good fortune, even with Tom Bradley in office (or maybe because Bradley was in office), those of us living in the shadow of a newly refurbished downtown and bustling Westside hardly expected to reap anything from one of the greatest events in the world happening in our backyard.

That meant that we didn't worry about traffic and the predicted car-pocalypse; we were not at the center of things and didn't expect to be this time. Traffic would have actually been welcome because it would mean activity and interest that neighborhoods south of the 10 didn't normally get and couldn't figure out how.

I was wrong about at least two things, and more wrong about one than the other.

The first thing was traffic: it simply never materialized, especially on the 405 that led to the Westside and to UCLA, a major Olympic site. It was astonishing to me to travel north down the freeway from Inglewood and make it into Westwood with no obstruction, especially the year after my departure from a university where I never could score parking. (When I had to drive to campus, I parked a few miles downhill from the eastern border and walked--hiked--up.)

The second thing was the assumption that the Olympics themselves wouldn't touch people in isolated places like South Central. I was wrong about that, too. Whether or not they made it to any events, residents had a baseline pride about the fact that the summer Games were indeed happening right down the street and in their own backyard, including USC and the Forum in Inglewood; for my own part, I got caught up in the summer-long craze of collecting and trading Olympic pins. In the end I was very much connected to the whole Olympic zeitgeist even though I went to just one event. I did share in the citywide surprise and pleasure at the fact that traffic turned out to be so benign; I believed that I had a part in pulling off the miracle simply by staying home and not contributing to the congestion that never happened. Ironically, that non-activity engendered a great feeling of collective accomplishment that I haven't really felt since.

Journalist and op-ed columnist Erin Aubry Kaplan's first-person accounts of politics and identity in Los Angeles, with an eye towards the city's African American community, appear every Thursday at 2 p.m. on KCET's SoCal Focus blog.

The photo used on this post is courtesy of the Metro Transportation Library and Archive on Flickr. It was used under a Creative Commons License.

When the Wheels Slow

2011-07-01T22:00:00Z

Momentum - that's the meaning of this city. Forward movement is what defines the Angeleño experience. We're not who we wish to be unless we're in control of some vehicle - skateboard or Maserati - and the thing with wheels is in motion. (Watch the bicyclist making slow figure-eights while waiting at a red light. He doesn't want to lose momentum, doesn't want to be stopped.)

This is a city where wheels must turn. And when wheels begin to turn more slowly, when momentum is lost, Angeleños begin to experience an existential dead. What are we, if we're not drivers? If the wheels cease turning altogether, and momentum drains away, it's an intimation of our own mortality.

]]> Westside drivers feel entropy daily on the 405 through the Sepulveda Pass. And this month - from Friday evening, July 15 to Monday morning, July 18 - they've been told to expect final entropic chaos. For 53 hours, the 11-mile stretch of the northbound 405 from the 10 freeway to the 101 will be shut down to demolish half of a bridge that must be replaced to widen the freeway for a new "high occupancy vehicle" lane. (A four-mile length of the southbound 405 also will be closed. And since only half the bridge will be taken down in July, another week-end closure will be needed to remove the other half.)

Angeleños, tutored by years of dystopian commentary, have a sick fondness for local apocalypses. (Or is it carpocalypses?) We like to watch as things we value are taken from us (perhaps because we don't believe we deserve them). To our wheeled imaginations, the last humiliation is to be pedestrian.

Closure of the 405 is the sum of those fears. But we've overcome them before.

In 1984, even worse nightmares were predicted for the two weeks of the Los Angeles Olympic Games. Then - with competition sites spread over the county - we were made afraid that the entire freeway system would fail. It didn't. Some Angeleños left town. Some drove less. Some became better drivers temporarily. Some big employers staggered work hours or flexed their employees' time. Something worked, through good planning and good luck, to keep the momentum going. For drivers who remember those weeks, the experience of traffic-free freeways was almost exhilarating.

The scale is far smaller for July's 405 closure, but the impact point is more concentrated. An estimated 500,000 cars travel through the Sepulveda Pass on a typical summer weekend. And because Los Angeles is, geographically, a cluster of "islands on the land" fragmented by mountains and foothills, there are few alternatives. The fear has been building for weeks.

The reality is going to be bearable, just as it was in 1984. The warnings from city and county officials and Caltrans may be over the top, but the degree of planning is reassuring. According to the Los Angeles Times:

Officials have been working for months to develop emergency procedures during the closure, which is expected to jam freeways and many streets around the affected stretch. Los Angeles Police Cmdr. Andrew Smith said officials plan to set up mini police and emergency service stations in several areas around the closed freeway, provide airlift sites for paramedic helicopters and deploy hundreds of extra public safety personnel. . . . Authorities said they are also preparing a small army of motorcycle officers who can cut through traffic and respond to emergency calls. And they are stationing tow trucks throughout the area to remove cars that may be blocking traffic. . . . Los Angeles International Airport is going to increase the number of airport police and traffic officers, and the California Highway Patrol and area police are coordinating a local traffic management plan for major intersections leading to the airport.

As in 1984, some businesses are planning to close. Some are changing their operating hours. Some - like the area's hospitals - plan to house their staff members on site or nearby. And some drivers will stay home to watch news helicopters hover over the 405 and "carmageddon."

What they are likely to see is nothing much at all.

D. J. Waldie, author, historian, and as the New York Times said in 2007, "a gorgeous distiller of architectural and social history," writes about Los Angeles every Monday and Friday at 2 p.m. on KCET's SoCal Focus blog.

The images on this page were taken by flickr users drburtoni (top) and biofriendly (bottom). They are used under a Creative Commons License.

Video: An Intro to Carmageddon

2011-07-01T21:00:00Z

video platform video management video solutions video player

]]> For more information, go to kcet.org/carmageddon.