So KPCC’s Sharon McNary sent out an email yesterday soliciting thoughts from the station’s listeners about the upcoming expectedly cataclysmic shutdown of the 405 Freeway this entire weekend, and one her requests was for respondents to write a headline, haiku, or limerick about the impending doom.
So I tapped out this tribute to motorista angst:
No matter which way you’ll be headin’
You cannot escape Carmegeddon,
To this weekend say “Ciao!”
It’s Autocalypse Now,
Lock the doors and crawl under the beddin’.
While most of the city’s car-addicted will be doing their damnedest to stay as far away from the 405 or any of its ripple effect across the greater Los Angeles-area highways and byways, curiosity over what such an integral motorway looks like completely devoid of its cargo has me plotting a long bike ride to and through the eye of the storm (so to speak) that at this point will be departing from the Happy Foot/Sad Foot sign in Silver Lake (northwest corner of Benton Way and Sunset) Saturday morning at 9:30 a.m., to head up-river, across the valley (involving the Chandler and Orange Line bikeways), then over the Sepulveda Pass and back through the westside to our starting point. Before making the climb up there will be a side trip to the always intriguing Sepulveda Dam spillway.
Charted distance: 46.9 miles
Route: http://tinyurl.com/6khnsvc
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