My Carmageddon Prediction

For those of outside the L.A. area, Carmageddon is the name being given this coming weekend's closure of the 405 freeway in West L.A.  Because of the demolition of a bridge and the fact they don't want steel I-beams falling on passing cars, the freeway will be shut down from the I-10 to the 101 beginning Friday night and continuing through early Monday morning.

According to what I've been reading this section of freeway handles about 500,000 cars every weekend.  It's a major route to LAX and the best route from the San Fernando Valley to the South Bay, Long Beach and the Orange County beaches.

The media has been in a full court press for weeks telling us how bad it's going to be.  I heard one traffic expert today telling everybody to "stay off the 405 this weekend".  I hope they keep saying that because on Saturday night I have to travel up the 405 south of the closure to LAX to pick up my son.

I predict it's not going to be that bad...for everybody.  If you live on the Westside of L.A., stay home.  If you're in the Valley and you want to come south, stay home.  The I-5 will probably be a nightmare since it will pick up lots of the traffic that would normally go down the 405.  On a good weekend the I-5 is ugly.

However, if you're south of the closure, I don't really think you're going to have a problem unless you're trying to go north of the 10.  I'm guessing we'll have a pretty smooth drive to and from LAX on Saturday night because most everyone else will have been scared off the freeway.

L.A. has had experience with something like this before - the 1984 Olympics.  We heard for weeks that traffic during the Games would be awful and to stay away from L.A. unless you're going to an event.  Traffic during those two weeks was the best it had been in years.  People took the warnings so seriously the freeway was a breeze.

I think the same thing will happen in most of L.A this weekend.  At least, I hope that's true south of LAX.

By the way, this isn't the end of it. They're only taking down half the bridge. The other half will come down a year from now and we'll do Carmageddon all over again.