Results tagged “traffic”

We're always moving, moving, moving here in Los Angeles, and mostly in our vehicles. Here's a look at how we move, set to soothing music by Erik Satie, and shot around Silverlake, Echo Park, Los Feliz, Griffith Park and downtown by Clark Vogeler. It's your moment of zen on a sunny day on LA's east side...and for the sake of the calm nature of this video, let's not re-hash the ages-old "what's east/what's west side" debate, mmmkay? Just enjoy.

As Thanksgiving approaches, the airports fill up. Officials at LAX today are warning passengers of the expected increased traffic at the airport for a ten day period, beginning tomorrow. Of those ten, the three busiest are expected to be tomorrow, Wednesday, Nov. 25; and Sunday, Nov. 29 because "airlines are forecasting passenger load factors approaching 80 percent on most flights and some flights fully booked."

Two to three hundred truckers are currently making their way up the 710 Freeway towards city hall in protest of "new environmental fees at the ports that they say threaten their livelihoods," according to the LA Times [Update: they have arrived to downtown]. Specially, they are protesting container fees for the Clean Truck Program, which has been law for over a year.

Carpool lanes added to the Southbound 405 Freeway as part of a $167 million project were opened up this weekend, in the hopes this will relieve some congestion on the road. "Caltrans workers Saturday took out barricades on the southbound 405 freeway's carpool lanes from the Interstate 10 Freeway interchange south to the 90 Freeway," explains CBS2, adding that the last step was to replace the surfacing material in the center divider.

Frustrated with a new (and slower) traffic pattern, one LAist reader earlier this week wrote us an e-mail: "Over the past week I’ve noticed a sharp increase in Eastbound traffic between Bundy and Overland during the morning rush hour, almost doubling the Santa Monica-Century City commute time," he noted. "Any idea as to why this might be? Have they reprogrammed the signals in the area? Perhaps the one at Sawtelle or Sepulveda?"

--La Peer Drive eastbound turn lane onto Santa Monica Boulevard, from 3 p.m. through 7 a.m. Sunday.

Books on tape? Podcasts? Daydreaming? Favorite albums? Drivers who commute out of the Inland Empire have the most time on their hands to fill while making long treks to their workplace, according to recent census data. "The data said the commute is almost 42 minutes for workers from Lake Elsinore. For Riverside County, the commute is 31.6 minutes...

The 25th Annual AIDS Walk Los Angeles gets underway officially at 10 o'clock this morning, but streets in West Hollywood are already closed to drivers and will remain so for a large portion of the day. If your travels today are in the vicinity, plan some alternate routes. Here's the route map to show you where to go to cheer on the walkers--or what part of town to avoid today.

An early morning rush-hour accident has prompted the closure of all southbound lanes of the 5 Freeway in the Santa Clarita Valley this morning. At about 5 a.m., a big rig traveling southbound jackknifed near Calgrove Boulevard, blocking lanes and impacting one of two routes out of the valley. At 7:47 a.m., the city of Santa Clarita sent a text message alert to residents saying lanes were still closed until further notice. That means to travel to the San Fernando Valley will mainly come via the 14 Freeway and The Old Road.

Some 23,000 runners, walkers and cyclists will be hitting 26-miles of Long Beach streets this Sunday morning during the the city's 25th annual marathon. About 35,000 people are also expected to join and cheer on race participants. That means if you live or will be in the area, especially between 5 a.m. and 2 p.m. in the Long Beach metro area, take heed of closures and traffic.

Causing excessive noise, speeding, splitting lanes dangerously, motorcyclists can sometimes be exasperating. Not only that, statewide statistics show that motorcycle fatalities are on the rise, increasing 51 percent in the past eight years. In L.A. County, deaths have increased 62 percent in the last four years, most drastically in the 21- to 24-year-old and 55 plus age groups.

Early this morning in Valley Village a water main break northeast of where a trunk line ruptured this weekend and caused massive flooding in Studio City has caused a sinkhole to swallow a fire engine and water and mud to flow into the streets. The fire truck was responding to the call to Hartsook Street at Bellingham around 5:30 this morning when the road was believed to still be stable. According to a live report on KTLA residents of the street have noted that the truck seems to be sinking further. The broken line delivers water to area homes, and it's unclear if its break is related to the previous Valley line break. Water and dirt are moving from the sinkhole area, east on Hartsook and south on Laurel Canyon towards Riverside Drive, potentially causing woes for motorists--either trying to drive or whose cars are parked where the mud has flown.

We knew it was coming and today it became official. Google Maps has added real-time traffic data for major streets on Google Maps. "[It] will now show you live traffic conditions on arterial roads in selected cities. Just zoom-in on the city you're interested in, and click the 'Traffic' button in the upper-right corner of the map. As you zoom in closer to an area of interest, we'll color the arterial roads, in addition to the highways, to show current traffic conditions," explained Google LatLong, the company's official maps blog. "Just as with the highways, the colors correspond to the speed of traffic (relative to the speed limit of the road): green is free sailing, yellow is medium congestion, red is heavy congestion, and red/black is stop-and-go traffic." And yes, it works on the iPhone.

A section of the Pacific Coast Highway was closed this morning after part of a tree fell on a bus around 8 a.m. in the area of Chautaqua Boulevard. The tree fell onto some power lines and a Metro Route 534 bus, knocking out electrical service to about 1,200 customers, according to Kim Hughes of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. No injuries were reported. Eastbound PCH remained closed between Las Tunas beach and Temescal Canyon Road while crews worked to clear the scene.

Forget "Cash for Clunkers"--a 56-year-old man skipped the middlemen and gave his cash to commuters yesterday afternoon when he "tossed money from his car on Interstate 210 in the Los Angeles suburb of Glendora shortly before noon Sunday," according to Yahoo! News.

Police have shut down Ventura Boulevard between Cedros and Willis in Sherman Oaks after bank employees suspected a possible break-in in progress this morning. Upon arriving around 8 a.m., bank workers heard suspicious noises coming from the vault area. They alerted police who in turn precautiously shut down the busy artery during rush hour as they prepared to enter the building. As of 9:40 a.m., police were preparing to enter the building, according to Officer Bruce Borihanh at Media Relations. UPDATE: A police search party exited the building empty handed, but noticed a man carrying a black duffel bag. He has been detained in handcuffs and is being questioned, according to KNX1070. UPDATE 2: The man was determined to be a homeless person not related to the incident. UPDATE 3: Ventura Blvd. has reopened, but police continue to search for a possible suspect.

Looks like Burbank officials goofed on the whole letting the business community know they were taking away blocks of parking to add traffic lanes. Not only does it exacerbate the current recession for owners, but it has possible legal ramifications with the law, says Damien Newton at LA Streetsblog: "In May of 2008, when the debate over the fate of the Mayor's Pico-Olympic Plan was at its hottest, a Superior Court Judge ruled that the City of Los Angeles needed to do an environmental study of the effects on eliminating street parking before moving forward with the plan to increase capacity on the two thru-fares at rush hour. The judge specifically noted the poor public outreach done by LADOT and the City, an outreach campaign that looks like a model for good government next to Burbank's." A Burbank traffic engineer admitted outreach could have been better. There was about a 24 hours notice given.

The company contracted by Los Angeles to install, maintain and monitor cameras that record drivers running red lights, eventually prompting a costly traffic ticket by mail, has filed for a court receivership, an alternative to bankruptcy. Now city officials are looking at what options they have when the contract expires with Nestor Traffic Systems, which could go out of business or be purchased by a another company.

Although the big event has come and gone, the Encino Neighborhood Council is meeting tonight to discuss with city officials about crowds and media that are expected to still visit the Jackson Family compound on Hayvenhurst Avenue, just south of Ventura Boulevard. "As a result of the tragic death of Michael Jackson, the LAPD has exercised considerable restraint in accommodating worldwide media and mourners with access to the Jackson family residence on Hayvenhurst Avenue," according to a statement from the council that the Daily News printed. "At the same time, Hayvenhurst is a vital community access roadway, especially for evacuation and emergency response." The police said strict enforcement would begin last week. The meeting, open to all to attend, will be held at the Encino Women's Club, 4924 Paso Robles Ave.

The 2009 Urban Mobility Report was released today, and the study gives us insight into how much time and gas we waste in traffic, according to abc7. Published by the Texas Transportation Institute, the study uses 2007 data to compare to earlier years, and while we may want to cheer that we shaved one hour from our "stuck in traffic" time from 2006 to 2007, we are still the worst in the nation when it comes to traffic.

       

In plans that were revealed only this morning, Michael Jackson's casket journeyed from the private family service held around 8:30 a.m. at Forest Lawn in the Hollywood Hills to inside the Staples Center where it was put on display during the public memorial.

With the eyes of the world on downtown Los Angeles today, the LAPD took an abundance of caution, more than doubling the amount of officers to work announced yesterday. "Past events including the 1984 Olympics 'pale in comparison to what we have assembled today,'" reported the LA Times, quoting LAPD Deputy Chief Earl Paysinger. The department has two main concerns for today: the "cold zone"--the space immediately outside the security area where large numbers are expected to gather--and the airspace, where the FAA granted a the city a temporary flight ban below 2500 feet.

Today might be a little chaotic, but remember this: what usually would take months in planning was done in only a few days. Yesterday, various agencies alerted the media and public of closures to streets, freeway on and off-ramps and public transit service changes. Here's what you need to know...

A private funeral for Michael Jackson will be held tomorrow morning at Forest Lawn cemetery, according to sources with the LA Times. "Sources said some family members will start at the Jackson family compound in Encino and go to the cemetery before going to Staples. It's unclear whether there will be a procession from the cemetery to Staples, though sources said law enforcement is against such an idea," the paper reported.

Tomorrow morning's public memorial service for Michael Jackson has not only been an epic ticketing drama and financial burden, but will also impact how vehicle and public transit traffic moves--or, rather, doesn't move--through the streets of Downtown Los Angeles tomorrow.

              

Of the 1.6 million who tried to get a pair of tickets and wristbands for tomorrow's downtown Michael Jackson memorial service, only several thousand were chosen for admittance into either the Staples Center or to the Nokia Theatre to watch a live feed. If you did get a ticket, part of the deal was to head to Dodger Stadium today for pick up. That meant thousands of people descending upon Echo Park and Elysian Valley, many of them during rush hour.

The memorial for Michael Jackson tomorrow will require shutting down a large area around the Staples Center. Metro's Blue Line Pico Station sits at the corner of that closure and while they are preparing to run service as normal, they are prepared and warning commuters of the worst case scenario, meaning massive crowds forcing the trains to operate between Long Beach and the Washington station. "We're going to run the blue line until told not to," explained Metro Spokesman Rick Jager. "The biggest impact is the busses because they've cornered off a large area." Over 50 bus lines will be re-routed (details below). "We're really urging people to plan ahead tomorrow. They will probably be a lot of delays," said Jager.

    

Around 6 a.m. this morning, driving to the Coliseum was no big deal. The trouble for people, we're hearing, was when you arrived to the immediate area that traffic just was just a parking lot.

Good news for everyone's well-being, but perhaps bad news for speed junkies--at least of the variety who enjoy zipping around on residential streets. "On of the longest stretches of unregulated residential asphalt in Atwater Village, with some 1,600 feet of acceleration space, is getting speed humps," blogs the Atwater Village Newbie.

If you're live, work or play in Anaheim, take heed! Tonight has two big events happening in the area. First is National Hockey League Stanley Cup Playoff game (Ducks vs. Detroit) at the Honda Center. Mix that in with the Anaheim/LA/Whatever vs. Boston game at Angel Stadium. The killer? Both begin at 7:00 p.m. so officials at both are warning of heavy traffic on the surrounding streets, freeways and freeway exits between 5 and 8:00 p.m.