A temporary closure of America's busiest road intersection, for 53 painful hours this weekend, is expected to bring unprecedented gridlock to a city already renowned for its epic bumper to bumper traffic jams.
Despite the impending, horn-blaring chaos few in the notoriously pavement shy City of Angels plan to walk, and many are taking to the skies instead.
Cut price $150 helicopter taxis are being frantically booked to get commuters to downtown and Los Angeles International Airport, and airlines are running "planepool" flights for the 40-mile hop between airports in the north and south of the city. Hundreds of plane tickets were offered at just $4 and sold out in hours.
Lance Strumpf, chief pilot of Briles Wing and Helicopter, which normally charters helicopters for $2,500 an hour, told his customers somewhat gleefully: "You can look at all those people stuck in traffic down below." More than 500,000 vehicles usually battle their way along the Interstate 405 mega-highway each weekend and it serves as an artery between the city and the sprawling suburban San Fernando Valley to the north.
Mike Miles of the the California Department of Transportation said traffic could be backed up for 64 miles as commuters desperately try to find shortcuts.
