As Southern California residents migrated throughout Los Angeles County en route to the homes of families and friends on the eve of Thanksgiving, footage of one of the city’s most notoriously busy freeways came as a troubling sight for any holiday latecomers.
The 405, a highway that largely runs parallel to the L.A. coastline before veering northward through the San Fernando Valley, serves as a major artery in the congested city network. With connections to many of the area’s largest freeways, it often becomes an unwelcome but inevitable part of commuters’ journeys.
But on the eve of the holiday, as nearly 7 million South Californians planned to leave town, the 405 appeared to be locked in a total standstill. Aerial footage from local news stations showed wide stretches of the freeway blanketed in pale yellow headlights and red taillights, a sign that thousands of travelers had lost hours of their trips stuck bumper to bumper…