Auckland correspondent Kent Lundberg writes:
“Someday I will compile all these stories where worst case scenarios don’t materialise.” Like Carmageddon 2 in Los Angeles this last weekend:
There were some fears that the second coming of “Carmageddon”, a full closure of the 405 between the I-10 and the I-101, might really bring the disastrous traffic jams that were imagined but never materialized the last time around. By all accounts, traffic was no worse this weekend in Santa Monica and the Westside than any typical sunning idyllic weekend..
So how about contributing your nominations for promised traffic chaos, heavily promoted by media, that next day … “oh, never mind.”
Vancouver’s best example: the Burrard Bridge separated bike lane that took a lane away in July 2009. Helicopters were ready to document the much-anticipated impacts; radio shock jocks were primed. Result: pretty much normal traffic flows, much to their disappointment.
Other examples welcome in Comments.
Central Freeway closure for seismic retrofits in San Francisco in 1997. Not only did traffic apocalypse fail to materialize, but there was so little impact over the ensuing months of closure that the public decided to remove rather than replace the freeway.
Recent – http://www.surreyleader.com/news/170781416.html September 21st news story forecasting congestion due to lane closures on the Cape Horn interchange due to reconfiguration for the new Port Mann. The scare story was so effective, traffic was scared away and there were no delays
The opposite is set to happen on the Port Mann: 4 Lanes of traffic on the worlds widest bridge! Free for the first week for Commuters to experience the “time saving benefits” of the new crossing!
And of course, people from N. Delta, Surrey, even transit riders will detour to use the crossing. Who can guess what will happen next? 🙂
I’d say the Olympics ranks up there with the Burrard Bridge for overhyped doom about traffic that never materialized.
Following Kyle, the reverse can be seen in all the handwringing about how we’d have to subsidize low ridership on the Canada line for decades,
…and back to overhyping traffic, it turns out we *will* have to subsidize the Golden Ears bridge for quite some time.
On a slightly different topic, did you catch the news story about parking prices in downtown Vancouver dropping due to lack of demand?
The recent restriction to one lane each way on Highway 1 @ Cape Horn due to removal/demolition of old overpass structures. This was from Friday evening to Sunday evening, for two weekends. I missed the first weekend but on the 2nd I had to drive around and had only 5 minute delays, at most. Oooooh, scary ghosts…. it had been hyped up, of course, so maybe that worked? I can’t imagine weekend traffic even coming close to rivalling weekday traffic so perhaps it’s just less an issue generally.
“Samoan road switch may be fatal: expert” http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/samoan-road-switch-may-be-fatal-expert-20090908-feqg.html
Also, Sweden in changing side of roads as documented by Tom Vanderbilt in Traffic. “And what happened when Swedes started driving on the other side of the road for the first time in their lives? The roads got safer?”
Isolated events (i.e. construction closures, festivals, runs, etc.) can be planned around – especially on weekends.
That demonstrates the value of providing adequate notice and publicity.
There are many occurences of traffic jams where there’s an emergency closure – like on the Golden Ears Bridge the other day:
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Trucking+plant+fire+partially+closes+Golden+Ears+Bridge/7333743/story.html?tab=PHOT
A few years ago (1997?)
Many years ago, Bay Area media was warning of mass chaos due to temporary removal of tolls on the Bay Bridge due to… see article. What happened? I faintly recall that in reality, traffic on the nearest toll bridge (San Mateo) increased as commuters avoided the free bridge chaos.
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/3-free-days-on-Bay-Bridge-to-atone-for-DJ-haircut-3123363.php