Why Carmageddon II Could Be For Real; 10 Freeway Stretches in L.A. to Avoid

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Listen up, people.

Apparently you're not taking this Carmageddon II freeway shutdown this weekend seriously. Maybe the first Camageddon last year was such a success that you think you can slack off this weekend. You can't.

The traffic information service INRIX is predicting at least some congestion, gridlock and bottlenecks as a result of your possible failure to heed the warnings. It has come up with a list of areas that could be jammed up:

The service predicts, according to a statement, that ...

... it's unlikely we'll see the dramatic traffic reductions observed a year ago.

Jim Bak, an INRIX traffic analyst and its director of community relations, told the Weekly there are three reasons he thinks this Carmageddon won't be as smooth ast the last one:

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First, people aren't going to buy into the hype. Last year it was the greatest weekend to drive in L.A. in the city's history.

The second thing is the time of year this is happening. Last year was in summer, in July. Kids were out of school and a lot of residents took vacations that weekend just to not be around for it. But now people are back to work, back to school and a lot of L.A. residents will be in town for the weekend. We see a 10 percent lift in traffic this time of year anyway.

The third reason is we also have some events going on this weekend. You have a 1 p.m. Dodgers game against the Rockies at home Saturday afternoon -- and the Herbalife Triathlon [Sunday] with road closures of its own. [The Dodgers play at 6:10 p.m. Saturday and 1:10 p.m. Sunday].

He also adds this: While last year people were told to stay away from the 405 area in no uncertain terms, this year some local leaders, including L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, asked that people keep shopping and dining to avoid the kind of ghost town business conditions we saw last year.

Bak:

The economic impact of that was not good, particularly with the tough economy, so there's a much more of a measured approach this time around.

He says that if people go about their normal, fall-weekend business as usual, however, our freeways could see a 30- to 50-percent bump in traffic with the 405 through the Sepulveda Pass out of the equation. Eek.

Here's INRIX's list of 10 potential bottlenecks to avoid this weekend: