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Whats is with the National Hype of Carmageddon on the 405 Freeway!

R

recto101

http://news.yahoo.com/surreal-ghost-405-freeway-awaits-la-205012798.html

I know that its the most clogged freeway in LA County and this freeway has this Harold Camping style hype to it. But LA freeways have been closed too back in the 1994 because of the Northridge quake and I hope LA improves mass transit too.

Look at San Francisco theres been 3 carmageddons in the past 5 years on the Bay Bridge due to the replacement projects of the eastern half of the Bay Bridge and BART and Ferry ridership boosted because to the closer. and also there was more traffic on the San Mateo Bridge and Golden Gate bridge. I say its all hype.
 
The reason it's getting so much press is that the 405-San Diego Freeway is considered one of, if not THE busiest freeway in the world. It's truly a big deal. As for bridge closings in the Bay Area, I can only imagine the nightmare as I've been there on average days that look like hell, so I understand your thoughts here, but the 405 closed for an entire weekend, that's a big deal.
 
Unlike just about every other major city in the country, Los Angeles has a woefully pathetic transit system as a viable option. Freeway closures are a big deal around here. The funny thing about all the hype the media generated about this is the reality that nothing catastrophic is happening or likely will. This closure might be the smoothest operation Cal-Trans has ever dealt with.
 
For my friends in the "Southland" I completely understand your obsession with the 405, that being said, it does not warrant ad-nauseum coverage on every major network and even some local stations as far away as Indiana. It just doesn't.

There are 311,765,000 in the United States of which 12,000,000 live in the L.A. metro. That does not, in my opinion, warrant network coverage in the way it has been presented. Perhaps a mention, a brief stand-up about the impact on the local region, but non-stop, breaking coverage, is borrrrrrring!

Unlike just about every other major city in the country, Los Angeles has a woefully pathetic transit system as a viable option.

Wrong. Houston has a horrible transit system but we don't uplink road construction on the bird for national consumption.
 
I forgot another Carmageddon in the Bay Area that was in 2007 when the Highway 580 melted into Highway-880 in Oakland because of a truck explosion. It only got Bay Area attention. but it was bad too but at least Bart Ridership boosted here. I understand that LA has to make its freeways meet earthquake standards and thats why they closed the 405 freeway but it should only be confined to the local media.
 
I can give you a one-word explanation: Schadenfreude. It's a German word defined as "taking pleasure from the misfortunes of others."

People love to make fun of LA, the smog, the "car culture," endless freeways, traffic jams, blah, blah. So the story is tailor-made for anchors and reporters who want to snicker knowingly and make sarcastic side comments.

My opinion - jealousy. Not that LA is perfect by any means - I'm glad I left. But let's face it - there are some beautiful cities, beaches, and mountains there; it's the entertainment capital of America and a lot of stuff happens there. Plus the climate is great...smog excepted, though the smog seems to be much less of a problem than when I lived there in the 60s and 70s.
 
Lkeller said:
I can give you a one-word explanation: Schadenfreude. It's a German word defined as "taking pleasure from the misfortunes of others."

People love to make fun of LA, the smog, the "car culture," endless freeways, traffic jams, blah, blah. So the story is tailor-made for anchors and reporters who want to snicker knowingly and make sarcastic side comments.

My opinion - jealousy. Not that LA is perfect by any means - I'm glad I left. But let's face it - there are some beautiful cities, beaches, and mountains there; it's the entertainment capital of America and a lot of stuff happens there. Plus the climate is great...smog excepted, though the smog seems to be much less of a problem than when I lived there in the 60s and 70s.
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Ahhhhhh...the snicker factor LOL :D
 
The 710 north and south and the 91 freeways are fine this afternoon driving from Pasadena to Torrance around 4pm. Took me a hour to get to the southbay for work as normal. Didnt notice any traffic on the 210. I would imagine the 405 only affects people in Santa Monica, Westchester, portions of Ingelwood, and Marina Del Ray. Stupid media hype. KTTV and KTLA were live this morning from 7am til 9am. Same thing when Michael Jackson passed away 2 years ago. His funeral at Staples no traffic on the 110 South after the service ended at 2pm
 
Anybody ever heard: "It's a slow news week." ?

There isn't any celeb dujour, trial-of-the-century, or other fabricated news, so something has to be created. Dare to say we couldn't deal with the young Americans dying in Afghanistan, Iraq or for that matter something on our own borders........
 
Don't other cities have carmageddon at some point in their history or in the works? like Seattle and the Alaska Way Viaduct.
 
From everything I've been hearing, it turned out to be a non-event. Everybody got smart and stayed home. Drivers who did have to be on the LA roads reported less traffic than usual, and the 405 re-opened on schedule.

Living in the Bay Area in the aftermath of the 89 earthquake, I recall that the Bay Bridge (connecting San Francisco with Oakland and the East Bay) was out of commission for a couple of months. Everybody adapted, took alternate routes, and traffic overall was about the same as usual.
 
I remember in 2007-2008 there was a carpocalypse on the Big Dig in Boston right after a woman died on the dig during Rush Hour but that was more confined to Boston Media. So was the closure of the Bay Bridge in San Francisco that carmaggedon was confined to Northern California.
 
As others have mentioned, there is an element in the national media that likes to make fun of L.A., but beyond that, national news outlets are always looking for stories that step outside the mold. In other words, find stories that are not the traditional inside the beltway politics, not the truely important stories that may be boring to most, but stories that can stir up some emotion, some fun, some watercooler talk, etc. To understand national news today is to understand the stories that air are hardly ever the most important, but the stories that generate the most interest. Just check mid-morning CNN or Fox, who both regularly run features where the audience gets to vote on what story they want to see. How idiotic is that? But guess what, it works.
 
searadiofreak said:
As others have mentioned, there is an element in the national media that likes to make fun of L.A., but beyond that, national news outlets are always looking for stories that step outside the mold. In other words, find stories that are not the traditional inside the beltway politics, not the truely important stories that may be boring to most, but stories that can stir up some emotion, some fun, some watercooler talk, etc. To understand national news today is to understand the stories that air are hardly ever the most important, but the stories that generate the most interest. Just check mid-morning CNN or Fox, who both regularly run features where the audience gets to vote on what story they want to see. How idiotic is that? But guess what, it works.
Click to expand...

Interesting observation. The cable networks are truly competing with bloggers and other audience-participation medium where opinion is the name of the game. I have been highly critical of this and suggest the news on TV should get back to what it does better than any other medium. Breaking stories and showing pictures.
 
Drucifer said:
I have been highly critical of this and suggest the news on TV should get back to what it does better than any other medium. Breaking stories and showing pictures.
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Well, so long as the "breaking stories" are not a rehash of Lindsay Lohan being released from rehab....again, and the showing of pictures is something newsworthy instead of house fires and vehicle collisions.
 
landtuna said:
Drucifer said:
I have been highly critical of this and suggest the news on TV should get back to what it does better than any other medium. Breaking stories and showing pictures.
Click to expand...

Well, so long as the "breaking stories" are not a rehash of Lindsay Lohan being released from rehab....again, and the showing of pictures is something newsworthy instead of house fires and vehicle collisions.
Click to expand...

I can produce newscasts from home using my lap-top. The on-line resources are much, much better than any product on television today. In fact, the only reason I watch the cable or network newscasts is to see if I missed anything which has not happened in close to 6 years. Global news gathering can be done anywhere by anyone. What makes television so powerful, IMHO, is the ability to go global, via satellite, breaking news and images as news happens. If it's more than a few seconds old, I can find a dozen or so sites with the story.

Television 'opinion news' is a product of the audience getting it's news from blogs. Pure and simple. Many journalists are blogging more in depth and with tremendous resources so now cable TV is after the same thing.

I happen to agree that most of what's on cable is 'trash news' with a sprinkling of what really matters.
 
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