This evening, at 7 p.m. (PST), a ten-mile stretch of Los Angeles’s Interstate 405 — the nation’s busiest stretch of road — will close down until Monday morning. Bracing for the worst, Los Angelans are labeling the temporary shutdown "Carmageddon." But is it really an apocalyptic nightmare in the making? Or a virtual snow day to celebrate?

For nearly two weeks, a stretch of highway outside Beijing saw monster gridlock, which stretched out over sixty miles and trapped drivers on China's National Highway 110 for days. It had been expected to last until mid-September, but last Thursday, after eleven days, the traffic jam suddenly broke.

Many people, of course, are wondering: Where did it go? How did it start? And could this kind of jam happen again?