Carmageddon parents get festive with the nursery paint.

NBC LA just dropped the hottest expose of 2012 (besides maybe the "teen Twitter party" epidemic in the Hills): a possible baby boom resulting from the 405 shutdown last summer. Otherwise known as Carmageddon, or the apocalyptic traffic forecast that never happened -- instead turning L.A. into a serene, pedestrian- and cyclist-friendly urban paradise.

"Our prenatal classes are actually fuller than they often are, so it may actually be a premonition..."

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Metro

The Wilshire Boulevard on- and off-ramps to the 405, post-Rampture.

​L.A. officials earned the respect and admiration of many far-off governments with the wildly successful PR campaign that was Carmageddon -- so named by crafty L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky. And the Supe is back at bat with a stern warning for the coming fall...

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NoiseCollusion

​We're sensing a little Westside bias. Shutdown the 405 for less than a weekend and all other news must cease: The world is coming to an end.

But over on the Eastside they're going to have a little Carmageddon Jr. going on this weekend.

That's right, the 710 will be shut down overnight in both directions starting tonight. And it's a doozy worthy of at least a little press:

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Warner Bros.

We'd rather be driving the 405

​Turns out a lot of you did stay home for Carmageddon. (Good boys and girls) And you watched some really shite movies. (Bad).

Well, at least you showed some L.A. love, as at least two of your top five on-demand pics over the weekend were rooted right here in the City of Angels.

That's according to Time Warner Cable, which announced this week that it received 1.5 million orders for on-demand videos over the weekend. It listed the top 5 flicks:

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Jesse Glucksman / Team Tiger Awesome

Early Brunch on the 405.

​So Carmageddon didn't attract the world-ending traffic jam that we feared it would. But the historic weekend closure of the 405 freeway did produce some interesting performance art, including a planking man and a woman who drove on a stretch of closed freeway and captured it on video. So far, however, ...

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Ted Soqui

Carma-what-now?

​So Carmageddon turned out to be a bust.

No 100-year traffic jam. No car-to-car shootings. Not even a report of roadkill. In fact, unless you were under a Prius all weekend, you know that the 405 closure ended early -- at about noon Sunday -- instead of abutting the Monday morning rush, as expected.

Good news, really. But was all the fear-mongering necessary? Here are the 5 reasons Carmageddon didn't materialize:

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Stephen Estes

Planking on the 405.

​We remember the time when guys thought they were popular because they laid down with lots of different people. But no longer. Witness planking man:

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Ted Soqui

​Carmageddon turned out to be much ado about nothing (as predicted). More surprisingly crews got their work done on the old Mulholland bridge earlier than expected.

On Sunday morning L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced that the 405 freeway between the 10 and 101 freeways would reopen at 11:30 a.m.

According to what Mayor V. told reporters at the scene:

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John M. via Foursquare

The Wolfpack, high off their big win against JetBlue (and a city of cars) today.

​The first day of the big 405 closure was disgustingly sunny, carefree, car-free, and otherwise lovely.

We'd go so far as to say there's been a magical warm-and-fuzzy feeling in the air -- maybe even fuzzier than the feel-good Royal visit last weekend. (And that's bad.)

L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, the guy who first uttered the word "Carmageddon" in June, in reference to the mayhem that would ensue from a 10-mile closure of the nation's busiest roadway, changed his terminology to "Carmaheaven" today...

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wolfpackhustle.com

Wolfpack Hustle.

​Update: Yo! Venice! reports that Wolfpack won with a speed of about 24.8 miles per hour and a time of one hour, 34 minutes. (We assume this includes boarding and taxiing for JetBlue).

Twitter users who followed the race also claim that a rollerblader who apparently left with the bicyclists also beat the JetBlue plane -- on skates (photo after the jump).

Metro light rail to Long Beach apparently claimed second place (with JetBlue coming in third).

[Added]: KTLA News followed the race on the ground. The station says it all started at a couple's front door -- with a car trip to the Burbank airport -- and ended up at a designated meeting place on the Long Beach Coast (with the couple getting there by cab). The station claims its news van actually got there first. The couple's plane-and-car trip apparently took nearly three hours. Video after jump.

First posted at 8:08 a.m. on Friday.

So you reached deep down into your wallet and came up with the $4 for that JetBlue Carmageddon flight deal from Burbank to Long Beach that will give you an airborne alternative to trying to get around a closed 405 freeway this weekend.

But is that really the fastest way to go?

Seeking to prove a point, the assemblage of speed demons on bicycles known as Wolfpack Hustle has laid down a challenge:

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YouTube

I'm the king of the world.

​Some folks have been threatened with arrest for attempting to get on the closed 405 today, but that didn't stop a woman named Heather Grimmer.

She drove onto the southbound 405 from Getty Center Drive, she tweets. The Los Angeles Times says she noticed that a CHP officer was letting a few cars on the freeway, so she decided to try it this morning. She got the rarest of views in L.A.

Her video and declaration of victory:

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California DOT

The Mulholland Bridge.

​Yeah, the 405 freeway is closing from the 10 to the 101 this weekend. But the meat and potatoes of Carmageddon really comprises only about four lanes or so of width -- the Mulholland bridge.

To widen lanes and make way for a new bridge they're taking the old thing out, and not, as Metro says, in a "Vegas-style" flash of explosives. Rather, in an anticlimactic, un-Michael Bay-like process, they'll be chipping away at the circa-1959 bridge with ... jackhammers. No 'splosions.

In an effort to satiate your thirst for all things 'geddon, the L.A. Sheriff's Department sent out this Metro rundown of what exactly will be happening to the bridge while your car overheats on Sepulveda. Fascinating:

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ThirdApe23

The devil's playground.

​Is the after-hours bicycle mob known as Midnight Ridazz planning to bomb the 405 freeway during this weekend's much-hyped "Carmageddon" shutdown?

The group is organizing an event it calls "4PACOLYPSE: The BIG 405 CLOSURE ride" for midnight Saturday/Sunday. According to its Facebook page riders will meet up at Mom's Bar on Santa Monica Boulevard in West L.A. not far from the south end of the closure.

One Facebook user asks, "how long/far do you think we will ride?"

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