Even with all the construction, traffic and car accidents in Fort Worth and Dallas, all of us North Texans should be thanking our lucky stars that we don't live in Los Angeles this weekend. The 405 highway in Los Angeles, which carries 500,000 cars every day and is basically the traffic aorta in LA, is completely shutting down for the weekend. Shutting down the 10-mile stretch of highway is necessary as a part of a major highway reconstruction project. Nicknamed "Carmageddon," the freeway shut down is certainly striking fear in car-dependent Californians.
I can only imagine the mass hysteria that will hit LA this weekend. The 405 links population centers in north and south LA and without it being open, most people are stuck at home this weekend - unless they want to get into hours of traffic on other roads. I'm not sure that there is a freeway equivalent of the 405 in Texas, but could you imagine is an entire section of Interstate 35 was shut down for the ENTIRE weekend? People would go nuts!
Although shutting down the 405 will definitely be causing traffic jams this weekend, the aim of the project is to make traffic flow more smoothly on the freeway in the future. If Californian drivers are anything like us Texans, I'm sure that there will be some incidents of road rage this weekend, but AAA is warning folks to avoid directing anger at other drivers and concentrate on their own driving.
If you live in LA, this weekend is not the time to be a distracted driver. Best of luck to all of those in the city of angels-I hope you can survive Carmaggeddon!
This commentary is provided by Mark Anderson, a Board Certified personal injury attorney in Fort Worth, Texas. If you've been hurt in an accident that wasn't your fault, call the Anderson Law Firm at 817-294-1900 and set up a free legal consultation with one of our top-rated injury lawyers.
