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Carmageddon, Schmarmaggedon: L.A. Survives The 405's Closing

Back on the road: Traffic on a 10-mile stretch of I-405 in Los Angeles started flowing on Sunday, nearly a day earlier than planned.
Kevork Djansezian
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Getty Images
Back on the road: Traffic on a 10-mile stretch of I-405 in Los Angeles started flowing on Sunday, nearly a day earlier than planned.

Much like The Rapture that didn't happen on May 21, the much-publicized " Carmageddon" in Los Angeles over this past weekend seems to been much ado about nothing.

As NPR's Mandalit del Barco reported forMorning Edition, even though 10 miles of Interstate 405 were closed for repairs and renovation for much of the weekend, many of L.A.'s streets and freeways "were blissfully empty." It seems that even in car-crazy southern California, folks took the authorities' warnings seriously and either stayed home or stayed away from the area.

And then, to top it all off, the work did get done ahead of schedule (as the Los Angeles Times had forecast might happen). Instead of remaining closed until early today, "at noon on Sunday, the first cars and motorcycles of the weekend drove honking and cheering through [the] stretch of I-405 that was closed at midnight Friday," Mandalit reports.

Now, theTimessays, L.A. officials are declaring "mission accomplished" — and planning ahead to next summer when work will again force a closing of the highway.

Perhaps, though, we need to think up another name for the sequel. "Carmaggedon II" may not work.

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Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.