Obligatory Windpocolypse Post

Since Southern California is again receiving High Wind Warnings and advisories, and thunderstorms have been brewing this afternoon (check that-- IT'S HAILING IN LONG BEACH), I thought I'd give a quick nod to the "Wind-pocolypse" of two weeks ago.

On December 1st, stories ran throughout the country covering the massive wind damage and power-outages across the LA area, and in particular the San Gabriel Valley.  Pasadena, Altadena, and Arcadia were the hardest-hit communities, with my wife having to work with no power on both Thursday and Friday, and my in-laws without power to their home for nearly a week.  In addition to that, there wasn't a street even in Glendale that didn't have this chilling somewhere along the path....

Not to mention the game of "find the traffic signal" that so many people seemed to suck at, and blow right through the powerless intersections.  It took Glendale DPW a solid 5 days just to get this guy completely out of the way, though it seemed that by Saturday morning, most all of the major limbs and branches had been cleared out of the main roadway and off to the parking areas and sidewalks.  Definitley more destruction that I would have thought, but hold on tight, because it looks/feels/sounds like we've got some more interesting weather headed our way!

Learning from Carmageddon; Preparing for Round 2

If nothing else, the recent Carmageddon incident in Los Angeles has taught us that we don't need to be completely car dependent at all times.  While the message from the local government and media was to simply stay off the roads and away from the area, it appears that message can be improved looking forward to next year's Carmageddon Reprise.  Why not a message of, "Explore your neighborhood on foot," or try to showcase the improvements that have been made to public transit?  The opening of the Expo Line next year will be a perfect opportunity to market the light rail and push for its re-expansion, bringing LA back into the efficient metro transit days of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Too many local business establishments were deserted on the weekend of July 15-17, and I'm a huge proponent of not letting that happen next time.  As I plan to discuss in a few following posts (and with some video clips, if I can hunt them down on cnbc), it is going to take a convenient alternative staring us in the face in order for the US, and California in particular, to drop the habit of hopping in the car to go anywhere. So keep the feed rolling, and prepare for some discussion on modern re-urbanization!

Carmageddon: The Chaos That Never Happened

Last weekend's 405 closure ended up to be much ado about nothing.  Traffic was flowing freely, people seemed to stay put, and the whole experience appeared rather painless as the job was completed 17 hours ahead of schedule.  Being the curious individual that I am, I tested the epicenter last weekend.  Here's a bit of what I captured...












I even took Sepulveda through the pass, and ass you can see below (with Who accompaniment), everyone who did use the roads last weekend sure wasn't here...

Carmageddon: Really?

The upcoming weekend's 405 closure between the 101 and 10 freeways, which has been dubbed "Carmageddon," is fast approaching.  With just a little more than 2 days to go, media hype has crescendoed and the entire LA area is being made to believe that this is practically the end of the world.  Get out of town, stay off the roads, and brace yourselves seems to be the dominating message. 

How about this one: does anybody remember the 1984 Olympics?  Granted, I was rocking some huggies at the time, but residents were told before the Games to do as much as they could to stay off the roads.  Yes, there was still a warning message prior to the event, but those that reported the upocoming event didn't speculate over the length and extent of delays.  They reported that in order to avoid gridlock and delays, the public's cooperation would be required. 

Today's journalists just like pouring gasoline on any tiny flame in the hopes of turning it into the next towering inferno.  Sensationalism sells second only to sex, apparently.  That's why reality TV is- gasp- scripted, after all.   Sure, there will be a bit of a spillover of traffic into the canyons and onto some of the side streets, but I'm thinking that overall the effect just won't be that bad.  Of course some drama queen in West Hollywood is going to perform some over-the-top lementing to the on-camera news reporter because the 3 square blocks around Coldwater Canyon were more congested than normal, and people had bad tempers, honking their horns and such, but come on...Drama Queen?...We-Ho?... it's not professional to stage newstories, people!

I plan on finding a good vantage point from a distance on Saturday morning, to assess the damage- or lack thereof- that Carmageddon is creating.  I see a problem, so I'm offering a solution.  Facts oriented observation of the issue at hand, as it unfolds this weekend.  Keep the feed rolling (blogosphere version of stay tuned)....

Thanks for the Shout!

The good Road Sage over at the LA Times is an excellent purveyour of Southland traffic knowledge, and it's an honor to be involved with a part of his work. Check it out!

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/bottleneck/2008/09/these-are-bike.html

Give it up to the Times!

....and mainly, Steve Hymon for taking over and vastly improving the quality of the bottleneck blog. As an Angelino, commuter, and disdainer of traffic and high gasoline prices, Steve's got all the issues covered! Here's a link to the bottleneck blog....

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/bottleneck/