It's not just any freeway being shut down, but one that even on weekends, when traffic is relatively light, can carry a half-million vehicles. "The risk factors are exactly the same as they were last year, so nothing has changed in terms of the heartburn that traffic agency people are feeling right now," says Dave Sotero, a spokesman for the transportation authority. The result, "Carmageddon," would have been miles and miles of idling cars filled with thousands and thousands of angry people. If thousands of people hadn't stayed home on a mid-July weekend last year, authorities say they might have caused a traffic backup so massive it could have spread to connecting freeways, gridlocking the entire city highway system. The agency is partnering with hundreds of restaurants, tourists attractions and other venues to offer discounts to people who can show they used mass transit to get there. "Eat, Shop and Play Locally," advises the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority, reciting its official Carmageddon II slogan. In the meantime, just what should people do over the weekend when they will hopefully be too afraid to pull out of their driveways? Authorities say every major transit, law enforcement and emergency services agency in the area has been cooperating in making contingency plans.
In Santa Monica, just down the road, a new emergency operations center opened last month. The UCLA campus, with about 41,000 students, has emergency traffic diversion plans in place. "Everybody, including myself, will be here to man the entire event, just to make sure everything goes safely for our patients and staff," says Shannon O'Kelley, the hospital's chief operations officer.Ī group of art enthusiasts, meanwhile, formed "Artmageddon," featuring activities at dozens of museums and art-house theaters and listing them on the website. What China is – and isn’t – learning from military drills near Taiwan Some patients, including women in the latter stages of complicated pregnancies, are being encouraged to check in before the freeway closes at 12:01 a.m. Hopes are high that next weekend will have the same happy result, as businesses and residents prepare to avoid the roadway that must close again so work can be completed on a bridge.Īt Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, just outside the Carmageddon Zone, officials plan to house as many as 300 doctors, nurses and other staff members in dorms at nearby hotels so nobody will have trouble getting to work. It was one of the lightest freeway traffic weekends anyone in Los Angeles could remember. Transportation officials say what they would like to see during the last weekend of September is a rerun of last year's two-day closure, when hundreds of thousands of motorists dodged doomsday predictions by staying away until the busy, 10-mile stretch of Interstate 405 reopened.
#Carmageddon 2 los angeles drivers
Hospital officials are hoping "Carmageddon: The Sequel" is as successful as the first production, and they said it will be if drivers heed the warnings and steer clear of the 405 Freeway this weekend.Īnyone in a life-threatening situation should still call 911."Carmageddon II" - the sequel - is coming to one of the nation's most crowded freeways, and authorities are hoping its subtitle won't be "The Traffic Strikes Back." "We're trying to have local patients so that they don't have to deal with the commute and potential traffic areas," Sharrer said.
But a few adjustments have been made to the elective surgery schedule. The emergency department will be fully operational during "Carmageddon 2," as will other departments. "We've looked at trying to arrange staff who live on the west side of the I-405 or are local, so that we don't have to deal with commute issues or staff remaining overnight over the weekend," said Steven Sharrer, the vice-president of the hospital's human resources.
Some staff members who would normally commute from the valley will be making the hospital home for the weekend. "With the work going on on the freeway, that's definitely part of our consideration because there's the possibility of a major accident with the construction that we would have to be able to take care of," Bowman said. The hospital is also prepared in the unfortunate event that something goes wrong as crews work to rebuild the Mulholland Bridge.
"We've actually staffed up a little bit in anticipation that something could go wrong where we would have to treat a big emergency," said Gary Bowman of Saint John's Health Center. While hospital officials are hoping for the best, they said they are preparing for the worst when the I-405 closes from Friday night to Monday morning from the 101 to 10 freeways.
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