Ever since I got caught in the Cahuenga Pass when the Hollywood Bowl was exiting, I have striven to find alternative routes when returning to my apartment from evening events in the Valley (when the Bowl is in season). Similarly, I try not to drive up Highland (toward the Bowl) when heading out on evenings when I know there will be an event there.
In short, when the Bowl is in season, I search for alternative routes to the San Fernando Valley.
And so it is with all of us who live in LA. If we know there’s going to be traffic in a certain region at a certain time, we either avoid travel at that time or find an alternative route.
That is why the so-called Carmageddon was not the catastrophe that many forecast — and feared. People made alternative arrangements. The roads, as many of my friends reported, were no worse than on any other weekend (and in some cases, traffic flowered more smoothly.)
A friend experienced heavier-than-usual traffic on the Thursday before the alleged traffic nightmare. Perhaps that’s because people were running errands — or getting out of town — so they wouldn’t have to be on the road when portions of the 405 closed.
So maybe all the hype served its purpose. It kept us off the roads this past weekend.
RELATED: L.A.’S “CARMAGEDDON:” A big nothing?
Glad to hear everything worked out, Dan. I must say, I was most impressed with my former fellow Angelenos!!! 🙂
My hubby lived in LA in ’84 (Olympics) and remembers traffic being easier than usual. I guess the apocalyptic predictions work.
The hype went too far. Once again, media thinks people are stupid and unless they scare the s**t out of them they won’t know how to behave.
I had a number of friends from the OC unwilling to come to LA (no where near the closed fwy) cuz they were convinced the whole city would be a mess.
I can’t stand the overkill of dire warnings, we are smart enough to accept true warnings.
Same with the ’96 Olympics here in ATL. It was supposed to be shear hell. Turned out we had the quickest and shortest commutes during that time.
I was wondering why we here in Tampa/Orlando were supposed to care.
Here in the North East, we get the same dire warnings every time 3+ inches of snow is predicted. I blame it on liberal media hysteria.
Hey, TnnsNe1. Are you familiar with I-24 from Monteagle to roughly S. Pittsburg?
#7… No, I live in Maine, the real North East. Why?
Oh. I thought you were from TN. That’s a stretch of highway with a 4-6% grade over the Cumberland Plateau. Drove through there in May and was the first time I’d driven through mountains. There’s a lot of curves and practical switchbacks along with ramps for runaway semis.
I drove through there at night surrounded by semis and my ears popping all the way. I was nervous, but it was fun.