Carmageddon

A Crisis arises in response to sudden threats that previously would have been ignored or deferred, but which are now perceived as dire.

Strauss & Howe The Fourth Turning, 1997 (p. 103)

Not that traffic on the 405 Freeway is dire or a sudden threat, but it's worth considering how extreme the situation had to be for people to calmly accept total shutdowns of large sections - repeatedly. Camageddon in July 2011, Carmageddon 2 in September 2012, Jamzilla in February 2014 - all of these have gone remarkably smoothly, without significant complaints reported. People were asked to stay off the 405 on the weekend of July 15, 2011, and they did. And again, and again. It's as if they were supporting the community over self.

Would people have been so compliant 20 years ago? (That was a few months after the Northridge Earthquake, so maybe it's a bad point of comparison.) 40 years ago was 1974, the height of Watergate: There might have been some resistance to a message of "Get off the road, stay off, don't ask questions."

Today's Spring Sting on the 215 freeway wasn't nearly as big a deal - a short early morning closure that lasted a few hours. It was, still, yet another situation where people were tolerant of what could have had a major impact on their own personal goals and desires, accepted because it had to be done.

The Crisis is a time to do things that need doing. Not because there are hopes for the future, or injustices to be rectified, or a chance to make money  - or all three. It simply needs doing. And it will get done.