Carmageddon: the 405 is closed

Call it nerdiness, inquisitiveness, or historical affinity. All night I have been watching the LAT and Metro web coverage of the impending closure of a 10-mile stretch of the 405 through the Sepulveda Pass. Once the closure is complete and the final cars have passed through, work will begin to demolish the southern portion of the Mulholland Drive overpass.

As of 1 am Central, the LAT says the shut down has already occurred; the Mulholland Drive overpass has been closed ahead of schedule. However, Metro’s special 405 webpage is still counting down one hour before the closure is completed.

It has been dubbed “Carmageddon” by the LA press, and with reason. The 405 connects LA’s crowded westside and beach cities with the San Fernando Valley. For those living along the coast, the 405 is an unavoidable choice for going north, which will nigh be impossible this weekend. Besides Sepulveda Boulevard (I love that street name) and whatever few other streets there are that pass over the Santa Monica Mountains, the only way in and out of the Valley this weekend will be via the 101 and 5.

If I were living in Venice, Santa Monica, or anywhere on the westside, I would have stocked up on beer and groceries a week ago, parked my car after work tonight, and not ventured out until noon on Monday. Oodles of writing and reading would have been done.

All this for a single carpool lane.

This was all set in motion long ago. Widening of the 405 south of the 10, to add carpool lanes, had begun before I moved to California in September 2006. My first visit to SoCal after moving, in October 2006, featured a long slog through weekend and construction traffic after coasting down Highway 1 from Santa Cruz. Going north on the 405 to Santa Monica, or wherever else nearby, was a nightmare for almost the entire time I lived in SoCal. Traffic always started backing up before the 90, and it was stop-and-go all the way past the 10. (The 10 east of the 405 is, according to Google Maps, called the Rosa Parks Freeway instead of the Santa Monica Freeway. I never knew that until now.) Going south was also a bitch. Returning to HB from a grand trip through Central California in October 2009, my parents and I were stuck in stop-and-go from Tarzana on the 101 to Venice Boulevard on the 405. (It would, I told my parents, clear up after Venice. Sure enough, it did.) I was driving and had to piss like mad the whole way, but held it until we pulled into their hotel on Beach Boulevard.

Plans for widening the freeway north of the 10 were in the final stages when I moved to HB in January 2007. I remember my uncle and his girlfriend watching the afternoon news on KABC; a church near the approved construction zone would need to be demolished, and its members were bitching. “But it’s all about everyone’s safety,” my uncle argued, rhetorically. Just as construction south of the 10 ended sometime in ’09 (which made driving to Santa Monica a hell of a lot easier), construction to the north was gearing up. Thankfully, I don’t have to deal with it anymore.

However, I cannot help sympathizing with Angelenos. Carmageddon was a popular conversation subject at Chez Quiet Man this week. As former SoCal residents, my parents and I all know how nightmarish the situation could be. (My parents actually lived in LA and Santa Monica — albeit in the seventies, when the 405 jammed only at rush hour. I lived behind the Orange Curtain, where the freeways were widened and improved, with carpool lanes, in the nineties.) “Carmageddon” could be an understatement this weekend. Though, if you ask me, Carmageddon is the daily norm in Los Angeles. (I seriously do not know how people can stand to live like that.)

But Angelenos did it to themselves. They — along with the entire region, state, and most of the country — have painted themselves into a corner in regards to transportation infrastructure. Had the trolley system never been systematically dismantled by the tire companies… Who knows? Perhaps LA would still have the world’s best mass transit system, and the rest of the west coast would look similar.

Plan ahead. Avoid the area, or stay home. That’s the theme, and that should be the game plan for Angelenos this weekend. Because, as of right now, the 405 is closed.