Down the coast with Dana Parsons

I motored onto the northbound 405 ramp at Euclid Avenue after work the other night, preparing for the standard mating ritual of attaching my front bumper to the rear of another car as I merged into thick traffic. But wait! There was no thick traffic. I could drive into any lane I wanted without inching my way over. It was as close as we get in Southern California to “no traffic.”

At 6:15 p.m. on a workday? Unheard of. Nor was there any significant backup for the 2-3 miles that I stayed on the 405. Had they declared a federal holiday I wasn’t aware of? Was I having a "Twilight Zone" moment and stuck in a 1970s time warp?

I quickly put the pieces together and arrived at two cogent observations:

1) $4.50-a-gallon is apparently the price at which people quit driving and

2) up until now, people have been taking a lot of utterly unnecessary trips at 6:15 p.m. on the freeway.

And then this sweet but horrible thought: Given the scant traffic and thoroughly doable 60 mph freeway-driving experience at rush hour, is $4.50 gas perhaps worth the trouble after all?

Comments

[Susan]

This didn't happen to be a night the Lakers were playing, did it? I was on the freeway at 6:30 on Thursday and found it empty, too.