Large Scale Central

Run! Its Coming! It's CAR-MAGEDDON!

General Discussion
#1

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2081752,00.html The Car-pocolypse is coming! Repent Repent…

Well maybe not that terrifying but, their closing the 405 freeway here for 50 hours this weekend in the Hollywood Hills between Santa Monica and Sherman Oaks, for us this is like shutting down the Oakland Bay Bridge for 2 days, or shutting off Lower Manhattan! there are very few alternate routes thru here. This will force traffic to take longer alternate routes. Predictions have ranged from some delays, to full blown car crashed gridlock as far away as the Mexican border. For LA residents this weekend is the perfect reason to go nowhere and spend the day working on the RR…or face… CAR-MAGEDDON!!!

#2

so, basically, if you go anywhere, pack a lunch, a cooler, and a porta-potty… :slight_smile:

#3
Andy Clarke said:
so, basically, if you go anywhere, pack a lunch, a cooler, and a porta-potty.... :)
Dont forget the bike so when you abandon the car on the freeway, so you can still get home :lol: :lol: :lol:
#4

Don’t need the bike… cause he won’t make it more than a mile from the house before his idling car runs the fuel tank dry.

#5

(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GMPbeMlA-vY/TV67ucYj1dI/AAAAAAAADJY/3fIgdBbZiEo/s400/Horse+car.jpg)

Maybe this would be a better solution then…

#6

Weren’t we all supposed to be flying our cars by the year 2000?

(http://johnnemec.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/jetsons.jpg)

#7

…And?

#8

Vic is still stuck in Carmegeddon.

Call out the Marines!

#9

Who cares? Not me.
The Freeways are always “under-built”, with out any thought to the future.
Thev’e been widening our little I-90 for the last 20 years.
They like to add only one lane at a time, instead of six or seven and be done with it.
Until half of the people in So Cal either leave the state, or quit driving, or work close to home, they will always have that gridlock.
I’m soooo glad I don’t have to commute on I-90 now. 30 years was enough!

#10

Steve, that wont help, their convoy from Camp Penelton will just get stuck on the 405 at about Westminster, and dont get too smug John, if you listen to the way all the talking heads out here are going on about this I’d expect the back up to reach the Canadian Border about Sunday noontime :lol:

Someone told me they’ve seen warnings on the electronic highway signs as far north as San Francisco! :open_mouth:

#11
John Bouck said:
Who cares? Not me. The Freeways are always "under-built", with out any thought to the future. Thev'e been widening our little I-90 for the last 20 years. They like to add only one lane at a time, instead of six or seven and be done with it. Until half of the people in So Cal either leave the state, or quit driving, or work close to home, they will always have that gridlock. I'm soooo glad I don't have to commute on I-90 now. 30 years was enough!
THANK YOU JOHN for noting the quality of planning and engineering by our great state Highway Dept., a more useless group of people I have never met. Before the Tacoma Narrows Bridge was built, I was at a meeting where acouple of engineer types where making a presentation about how they were building a multi Billion dollar bridge (a toll bridge) but not adding any additional lanes for traffic! I told them that was VERY poor planning as the traffic volumn will only increase and that I would use the HOV lane all by my self. needless to say the bridge is now 3 lanes with the separate HOV lane. Like john says, they plan the new road for traffic volumns of 25 years PAST! But it is Washington so what do you expect - nothing that way you are never disapointed!

Paul

#12
Andy Clarke said:
so, basically, if you go anywhere, pack a lunch, a cooler, and a porta-potty.... :)
We do that every time we go out on the boat :D
#13

I remember having concerns way back in the 1970’s after being told by the tv and newspapers that oil would run out by the end of the century (20th) and cars propelled by diesel or gasoline would be obsolete. lol

Maybe the answer to Vic’s problem and those also living in his State (and maybe beyond) might be to built high speed rail lines…lol

ducks below the parapet…

PS: Looking at the 'photo in the initial post by Vic shews that the removal of the bushes would make room for a rail line. The rail passengers could wave to the motorists as they sail by.

#14

Car-mageddon Eve is here. Had to drive to the Heart of the Car-pocalypse this morning, Santa Monica, even drove back thru the jaws of the Car-mageddon over the dread 405 fwy …smoothest drive thru there in years …everything was great …right up till we hit our local freeway the 210 and Bam! Gridlock.Yeap they did a great job shifting traffic away from the construction zone …and right onto all the ancillary freeways. Gonna be a long weekend in our neighborhood.

#15

So, lay in a supply of Holy Water, and stay home.

Run some trains.

Remember the 84 Olympics? That’s what I did.

#16

You know, there’s a perennial Pa riddle that goes “What’s yellow and sleeps 6?” (A: a PennDOT truck) - It could be worse, they COULD HAVE shut the whole thing down completely or made it alternating single lane for 5-7 months like they often do here.
And most years we could probably give you a run for it in the inept/corrupt/idiotic/flat broke government contest, too :stuck_out_tongue:

#17
Alan Lott said:
PS: Looking at the 'photo in the initial post by Vic shews that the removal of the bushes would make room for a rail line. The rail passengers could wave to the motorists as they sail by.
The BART in the bay area goes down the middle of the freeways in a lot of places. By all accounts BART is a big success with thousands of commuters riding it daily. If it works there it should/could also work in other large metro areas. But leaving the car at home is like quitting smoking - you've got to have a reason to break the habit ($6.00/gal gas ?).

Walt

#18

Poor Los Angeles folks, gotta feel sorry for them? NOT.

#19

Now that the work commutes and weekend getaways are over looks like people are hunkered down and staying off the roads in droves

#20

I just think the media has been overplaying this. I saw an alert from LA City Fire on pre positioning equipment and suspect that pressure may have come from politicians.