So this is actually old news for anyone living in Los Angeles, but I thought I’d post this for the non-Angelinos.
There was recently an event in Los Angeles lovingly referred to as Carmageddon.
Essentially, one of our main highways that runs North/South on the west side of Los Angeles was completely shut down, encircled in blue in the upper left hand part of the map.
Below that section is our major international airport, LAX. The screenshot was taken Friday, 9/19 at 3:28 PM PST. You can already see the red and black gridlock forming on the map.
So several months in advance, a rampant DO NOT DRIVE THIS WEEKEND campaign started in Los Angeles. JetBlue even offered FOUR ($4) dollar flights between Burbank and Long Beach airports (see purple line).
And you know what happened?
Nothing. In fact, the opposite of nothing. No one drove!! Los Angeles was… beautiful! A few cyclists tried to bike on the closed highway section, but were arrested (!!?).
Also, a cycling team wanted to see if they could beat the flight from Burbank to Long Beach on their bikes – and they did! (Note that it also included drive to/from, security and check in) Granted, there is a protected bike lane the majority of the way between Burbank and Long Beach (and it’s a really boring ride haha) but hey! That is awesome.
It was a great day; the highways were all green on Google Maps, and the town stayed local to their own vicinities. I think we need a carmageddon at least once a month here in LA. 🙂
I just wish we could have biked on the closed section of highway!
Holy crap, yes. I’ve never seen the freeways so clear as I did on Carmageddon weekend. They felt… free.
In other Carmageddon related news, there’s a totally awesome PC game of the same name, released in the mid-late 90s. It’s a racing game with a twist. You race against AI opponents on a track through an open map littered with power-ups and pedestrians. You have a timer, boost the timer by passing through checkpoints… or damaging enemy vehicles, or running over pedestrians. You “win” each level by a) winning the race, or b) destroying all enemy vehicles, or c) killing every single pedestrian in the entire map (and there can be hundreds of them).
Truly awesome game.