"Car-megeddon"

Traffic in Los Angeles and in the greater metro area is notorious and has even earned a place in the romanticism of the American West generally and Southern California specifically.

Because of this, the city and county officials have launched an early awareness program about a three-day, ten mile closure of the San Diego Freeway. I wrote a post back in September of 2010 about driving in California during a trip, and I had a bit about the highway numbering. In a comment, my mother, who grew up in LA, discussed the fact they didn't use numbers, rather they used names. So to her, the San Diego Freeway is more natural, but other folks might know it as I-405.

They are closing a ten mile stretch of the 405 for three days! From 101 to I-10, the 405 will be shut down for a few days in July. Some people are calling it "car-megeddon". Some officials are telling people to simply stay home, but, at all costs, stay far away from the roads around the 405 area.

For people not familiar with this particular stretch of highway, the 405 from 101 to I-10 services the millions of people living in the San Fernando Valley (origin of "valley speak", like ending declarative sentences in an upward lilt, making them sound like questions, ie, "I went to the store? Then I bought some food?") with Western LA. This could be the busiest stretch of freeway in the history of the United States.

If you take every single person in Austin, Texas, then double that, then put them all on a freeway going the same direction in the morning, and all going the opposite direction in the evening, you get the idea. More than 1.7 million people use that stretch every day. Now imagine closing it. You can do the same exercise with the residents in the city of Sacramento, only triple the number.

Car-megeddon indeed.

I'm glad I never have to deal with that stretch, unless we're driving to SLO or Sacramento.