UCLA Urban Planning professor Brian Taylor was featured on the KCRW public radio program “Which Way LA?” on Wednesday. The segment, called, “Is LA too Complacent about Carmageddon 2?”, discussed the upcoming “Carmageddon II” freeway closures in Los Angeles.
During the interview, which begins at minute 7:44 and continues throughout the recording, Taylor says the “Carmageddon I” disaster messaging was very effective leading up to the closures last year, almost too effective because it was picked up by local, national, and even international news.
“The awareness was so high people dramatically changed their behavior for a short period of time.”
The researchers found that there were 60 to 70% drops in freeway volumes near the closure last year and that almost all of the reductions were due to people simply not making trips. Taylor says this level of reductions was not necessary.
This year, Taylor does not expect that the reduction in trips or traffic volumes in and around Los Angeles will be as dramatic because people learned last year that it wasn’t “Carmageddon” after all. However, he said, “We are likely not going to see the kind of disaster that is possible if people heeded no warnings.”
Taylor, who also directs the UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies and the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies, was discussing the report he recently co-authored with Urban Planning Professor Emeritus Martin Wachs, former UCLA Master of Urban Planning student Earl Kaing, and former Master of Public Policy student Zodin Del Rosario. The report is titled, “Why It Wasn’t “Carmageddon”: An Analysis of the Summer 2011 Closure of the Interstate 405 Freeway in Los Angeles.“
“Which Way LA?” is available on the KCRW website and by clicking here.