Carmageddon condensed

If you were in California, there was no escaping hearing all about Carmageddon, the doom that was supposed to happen to the L.A. area freeway system when the ten miles of the 405 (the San Diego Freeway, which isn't actually in San Diego) between the 10 (Santa Monica Freeway) and the 101 (the Ventura Freeway, I think). We're talking some places that are super ultra mega crowded even on a good day.

Anyway, it was captured in this cool video, reminiscent of a recently popular time-lapse of Seoul (though not as cool as that).



Carmageddon turned out not to be, not because it shouldn't have been made a big deal, but because they made a big deal out of it. Just as Angelenos did during the 1984 Summer Olympics, they showed they were willing to stay off the freeways and off the nearby surface streets if it was needed.

The work finished ahead of schedule. In Los Angeles, it's easier to raze things than raise them.

And there may have been some game-changing results from this. People actually got on trains and rode bicycles (but the people who flew across town for $4 clearly didn't get it). With Carmageddon 2.0 eleven months away, when they knock down the other half of the bridge, maybe some of it will stick (with some people).