On Sat, Jul 16, 2011 at 4:51 PM, Kevin M. <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Sat, Jul 16, 2011 at 4:24 PM, David Lynch <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Sat, Jul 16, 2011 at 18:14, Joe Coughlin <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> Of course, it's impossible to know if this is in part because of the > huge > >> education campaign. The possible effects, while surely overstated, might > >> have happened if people had been taken unawares. > > > > IMO, the authorities had a no-win situation: Predict massive gridlock, > > and enough people stay home that it doesn't materialize and they're > > accused of overstating the effects. Fail to scare people into staying > > home and the rest of the road network collapses under the strain of > > the diverted traffic, making everyone wonder why the warnings weren't > > more dire. > > The problem is that they can't cry wolf without causing problems. When > it comes time to close another freeway (or to close the same stretch > of freeway again, which will ultimately have to happen), nobody will > listen to them. And that is fine because one can get to most places on > surface streets, but when the time comes for them to campaign for > things like extending the 710, adding funding to the metro, or > changing the carpool lane of the 10 into a toll road, nobody will see > LADOT and CalTrans as credible. > > Think of all the local businesses losing revenue this weekend. Think > of all the flights that were rescheduled. This whole situation is like > Britney's nether-region: Nobody needs it and it stinks. > I lived in Pasadena, 1 mile from the Rose Bowl, during the LA Olympics. There was a similar local media hysteria about gridlock nightmares, both for the soccer in Pasadena, and in LA generally. In the event, I have never seen less traffic on LA freeways than during that summer of 1984. The warnings scared enough locals that they had all kinds of flex schedules, car pools, vacations, alternate routes. As with today, we were partly pissed that they scared us so much about it, partly grateful that they did scare us to keep us out of the gridlock. -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
