Hey Vaughn McMillan and..........

Curt Fuller

Member
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348
Location
North Ogden, Utah
Hey Vaughn and any of you other So Californians, is the "Carmaggeddon" closing of the 405 as bad as they're making it out to be? I have family heading to Disneyland and they're wondering.
 
Sorry, I'm a third generation SoCal boy. I only go near the city when folks come from out of town and want to go sight-seeing. I haven't heard too much grief about it on the news though. Vaughn?
 
Curt,

I am way south of that and I don't have a clue. However, that area is ALWAYS very busy and ANYTHING turns it into a mess.

Try the California Freeway traffic map on the web. I have used it only once, a long time ago and don't remember how to get there. Glenn Bradley would know, PM him.

Enjoy,

Jim
 
Curt, Disneyland is south of LAX, and the closure is north of LAX. If your family will be going from LAX to Disneyland on that weekend, they should be OK (although delays along that stretch are pretty common anyway). If they are planning to go north of LAX, especially on the 405 freeway, they're probably going to run into heavy delays.

The people who will be most affected will be those who are trying to travel on the 405 from the San Fernando Valley into the Los Angeles Basin, and vice versa. I drive on that stretch of road - the Sepulveda pass - nearly every day at work (sometimes multiple times in a day), but fortunately we're not planning to be working that weekend. That road is not for the faint of heart on a normal day. ;) I've gotten to the point where it doesn't bother me at all. Traffic's not nearly as bad when you're getting paid hourly to sit in it. :D I've also gotten accustomed to driving at 75 in the car pool lane with the Jersey wall 2' from my driver's door. (We have a lot of "zero clearance" lanes with absolutely no shoulder.)

It's interesting that Glenn hasn't heard much about it. Granted, he's in the next county over, but on this side of town, it's about the only thing on the news. Every permanent and portable electronic message board on the 405, 101, 5, 118, 105, and 110 freeways I've seen for the past 3 weeks has been warning people about the closure. Last Thursday as we were driving over the Sepulveda Pass for the third time that day, we passed by what had to have been the 900th such sign we'd seen that day. In a surprised voice, I said to Perry "Did you hear they're closing the 405? When did they decide to do this?" :p
 
Thanks Vaughn. They're flying into John Wayne so they should be away from most of the trouble.

Yeah, I meant to ask if they were coming into that airport. Much better choice than LAX for hitting Dinneyland. :thumb: They shouldn't have any problems worse than a normal weekend.

Just for grins, I took a photo this morning while driving through Sepulveda Pass, to show the "zero clearance" lane I spend a lot of my driving time in...

Southbound 405 - 800.jpg

Traffic was pretty light this morning. Here's how it looked this afternoon headed home. (We were only traveling about 20-25 mph, so that's why I'm pretty close to the SUV in front of me.)

Northbound 405 - 800.jpg
 
I know what you guys mean about traffic. Just yesterday morning in the middle of rush hour I got stuck in traffic. They are remaking the main road in and out of our town and I had to wait at least 45 seconds for the flagger to let me through. Guess I'm going to have to get up earlier in the morning to avoid the mess.:D
 
Just for grins, I took a photo this morning while driving through Sepulveda Pass, to show the "zero clearance" lane I spend a lot of my driving time in...

Brrr, that looks like an accident waiting to happen, Vaughn!

Reminds me of the time 15+ years ago when my wife and I had a small trip to Manchester, UK, and we rented a car and drove into the countryside... none(?) of the roads had shoulders. It was road + wall, or road + hedge, all over the place. Add that to the fact that I was extremely nervous about driving on the "wrong" side of the road meant that I hugged the curb, so my wife was putting up with this wall or hedge whizzing past her window, close enough to touch. :doh:
 
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