Los Angeles, home of notorious traffic jams, is preparing for a potential doozy. People are calling this weekend’s closure of 10 miles of the 405 “Carmageddon.” What’s happening is 10 miles of the very busy highway will be shut down to traffic as part of a reconstruction project. The big question is whether the work will result in massive traffic jams or if the impact won’t be that great because it’s a weekend project.
We’re seeing some examples of social media in action in preparation for Carmageddon. KABC is teaming up with the traffic app company Waze to offer an app that is powered by the audience. It detects your speed as you drive and keep the app open. Utilizing that information, Waze generates a map showing traffic. After your ride you can report what you saw along the way (typing is disabled while you’re driving).
The LAPD is asking some of Twitter’s top celebrities to help spread the word as well. It asked Lady Gaga, Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore and Kim Kardashian to tweet about the closing. Those four have a combined 30 million followers.
Have you seen any examples of social media about Carmageddon in action? Let us know in the comments below.