Coming Soon: Carmageddon II

It’s official: Carmageddon II is scheduled for the end of September from the evening of Friday, September 28 to the early morning of October 1.  As before, Metro is demolishing a portion of the Mulholland Bridge in part to make place for a carpool lane.  The full details of the closure can be found at any number of news sites, including Patch.

People keep saying this picture, was "pretty." Yeah, except for the asphalt. Photo: Carter Rubin

As many Streetsbloggers remember, Carmageddon is not an apocalypitical event, but a pretty fun weekend where the number of cars on the road is dramatically reduced all over the county.  It’s too bad Metro and Caltrans are so hell bent on widening the freeway, because removing it created a great transportation environment.

Of course, the highlight of last year’s Carmageddon for thousands of cyclists around the world was the Wolfpack Hustle vs Jet Blue “race.” When Jet Blue announced a promotional flight over the Sepulveda Pass from Burbank Airport to Long Beach Airport, a group of cyclists led by Gary Kavanagh, Roadblock, Joe Anthony and Ezra Horne challenged the flight to a race.  Jet Blue played along.  The bikes won, easy.

Rather then dwell on the details, spin and dire warnings, let’s focus on the fun of Carmageddon.  How are you going to celebrate Carmageddon?  What kind of events would you like to see programmed to help celebrate the car-reduced weekend?

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG

Bike Carmageddon: The Westside Rides

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Carmageddon II is coming. Freeway closure isn’t a catastrophe, but a great opportunity to stay local and explore your neighborhood by bike! Leave the car at home, and join Walk ‘n Rollers and our LACBC Westide local chapters (Culver City Bicycle Coalition,Santa Monica Spoke, Better Bike Beverly Hills, and West Hollywood Bicycle Coalition) for a series of family-friendly rides during Carmageddon II! […]

Carmageddon: The Valley Ride

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BIKE CARMAGEDDON!  The Valley Ride Public Event By:  CICLE L. A. Sunday, September 30, 2012 10:00 am until 1:00 pm in PDT Metro Orange Line Balboa Station 6340 Balboa Blvd, Encino, California  91316   View Map · Get Directions   Carmageddon II is coming. Freeway closure isn’t a catastrophe, but a great opportunity to stay local and explore your neighborhood […]

Open Thread II: Carmageddon Experiences

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We got your predictions in the thread below, but as the weekend progresses feel free to let us know how/if Carmageddon is impacting your weekend. My first report is that we’re relieved that the news is recharging at the moment so that we have a couple of hours without helicopters flying overhead. Also, I got […]

Carmageddon Now a Big Bike Weekend

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Last year, Wolfpack Hustle stole the show, and many of the headlines, from the doomsayers that predicted Carmageddon when Caltrans had to temporarily close less than ten miles of freeway connecting the Westside of Los Angeles to the Valley. How did they do it? The bicycling team raced an airplane from Burbank to Long Beach […]

Why Streetsblog Doesn’t Write More About Carmageddon

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Unless you’ve been living under a rock, a rock that doesn’t have Internet service, radio, television, print publications, carrier pigeons, bike message service or regular mail, you’ve been bombarded with messages about how awful next weekend is going to be. You see, to expand the already gargantuan 405 Freeway another lane in each direction, Metro […]