Traffic Patterns in LA (very general advice) (San Diego, Long Beach: apartment, live)

[luckynumber8]

I was wondering which direction is congested in the morning and afternoon. Somebody told me that most people commute East to West in morning and West to East at night.

1) Is this true? Or is traffic congested both ways during rush hour?

2) Is LA rush hour roughly 7-10AM and 4-7PM?

3) Is there a general trend / pattern I should follow?

4) What time should I leave for work and what time should I leave the office?


THANKS AGAIN ALL!

[EscapeCalifornia]

Depends on the freeway. Lots of people head west on the 210/10/60 and down the 605 in the mornings. The 101 east is also a parking lot in the morning. The 405 is screwed in both directions just about 24/7. Start your rush hour times an hour earlier and you're getting close to reality.

[Rats]

check sigalert.com during rush hours and you'll get a picture of how the traffic patterns are.

rush hours are approximately 6:30AM-10:00AM and 2:30PM-7:30PM. on Fridays the traffic is unbearable all day long.

[SandyCo]

I agree with what everyone else has said, and on rainy days, you can triple the regular rush hour commute times. No, I'm not joking.

Some freeways are worse than others. The 110 from downtown to Pasadena is scary, even though big trucks aren't allowed on it. The 710 to and from Long Beach is a heavily used truck route due to the port. Lots of accidents there.

A lot of our interchanges don't make sense. For instance, when you're going east on the 134, there is no connector to the 5 north! You really have to know your way around, or a Thomas Guide is very helpful. Yes, there's also Mapquest.

Also, the freeways change names, but not numbers. The 5 is known as the Santa Ana Freeway or the Golden State Freeway, depending on where you are.

Or the opposite can occur: The 101 is the Hollywood Freeway until you get to the 170. Then the 170 is called the Hollywood Freeway, and the 101 North (which really goes west for several miles through the San Fernando Valley) is called the Ventura Freeway!

I'm used to this madness, because I've lived here all my life. I can only imagine the poor people who are visiting and trying to make sense of it.

[EscapeCalifornia]

Originally Posted by SandyCo

A lot of our interchanges don't make sense.....

Ah, fun stuff. I love it when you have to take an exit to stay on the same freeway. For example, take the 210W though Pasadena and if you want to stay on the 210W, you have to "exit" to the right or else you'll wind up on the 134. For someone used to staying in the #1 or #2 lane and expecting to stay on the same road, that's quite surprising.

A lot of the roads and transition were simply not meant for the speeds cars are capable of today nor the traffic volume. The on/off ramps from the 10 in Monterey Park and Rosemead area have these weaving lanes that look about 20' long. Genius. And don't even get me started on the 110 north of downtown. I know its historic and all but its a hazard.

[Rats]

Still, our freeway system is one of the most navigable in the world. Ever tried driving in Canada or Italy? some of the signage literally has you driving in circles to get to places.

[SurekRZA]

No that pattern is not true, fully. Traffic starts at different times in different freeways. The 405 south gets traffic as early as 7am and it clears around 10am. It stays clear until about 2pm and then it begins to have traffic until around 7pm. Yes, its really bad but what can you expect? You have a 6 lane freeway that meets a major intersection which is the 10E & 10W AND there is only two lanes for cars wanting to head either east or west so what ends up happening is that they start slowing down and piling up and they cause 2 lanes of traffic. Shortly after that the same 6 lane freeway turns into a 3 lane freeway for about half a mile so you have 6 lanes of cars trying to merge into three which causes even more traffic.
On the other hand, the 405 North doesnt get traffic until around 10am and it clears up around 12pm (I believe) and then it clogs up again around 3:30pm and clears around 7pm.
The 101 South starts getting traffic around 8am and it clears around 10am. It remains clear until about 4:30pm. The traffic begins at the intersection of the 101 and 110. This is because theres A LOT of cars wanting to head North or South on the 110 and theres only two lanes for these cars to head either way, so what ends up happening is that they start piling up and ALSO the 101 turns into a 3 lane freeway for about a mile after the intersection so all these cars have to merge into three lanes until the cars coming from the 110N to the 101S create another lane to the 101 to make it again 4 lanes.
The 101 North gets some traffic during the day at around Noon but its not too bad and it finally gets major traffic around 4pm 'til about 7pm.
The 5 south gets traffic around 5pm a little after the 101 South gets traffic and the 5 North has traffic from 4pm until about 7pm.
The 110 freeway has major traffic in the morning and it all begins at the intersections of the 101 and 10. Again, the intersections are TOO small to accomodate all the cars wanting to switch freeways. The 110 freeway has constant traffic all day but mainly around the downtown area and thats because the 110 freeway seperates into the 110N, 101N, 5-S/101S. So cars are merging left and right to head which ever direction they want to go.
What you want to remember are the main traffic hours. If you can avoid going out or taking the streets rather than the freeway you should be good. As for your job, you should try leaving at least an hour early and see how long it takes you and then decide from there what to do next time.

[Rats]

and if possible, carpool. Separated carpool lanes like on the 110, 10 (El Monte Busway), and 105 are godsends, since the regular freeway traffic barely affects them.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by SandyCo

I agree with what everyone else has said, and on rainy days, you can triple the regular rush hour commute times. No, I'm not joking.

Some freeways are worse than others. The 110 from downtown to Pasadena is scary, even though big trucks aren't allowed on it. The 710 to and from Long Beach is a heavily used truck route due to the port. Lots of accidents there.

A lot of our interchanges don't make sense. For instance, when you're going east on the 134, there is no connector to the 5 north! You really have to know your way around, or a Thomas Guide is very helpful. Yes, there's also Mapquest.

Also, the freeways change names, but not numbers. The 5 is known as the Santa Ana Freeway or the Golden State Freeway, depending on where you are.

Or the opposite can occur: The 101 is the Hollywood Freeway until you get to the 170. Then the 170 is called the Hollywood Freeway, and the 101 North (which really goes west for several miles through the San Fernando Valley) is called the Ventura Freeway!

I'm used to this madness, because I've lived here all my life. I can only imagine the poor people who are visiting and trying to make sense of it.

The 405 is the San Diego Freeway even though it doesn't go to San Diego.

It's called the 405 because it takes 4 or 5 hours to get anywhere.

Freeway numbering conventions: the 405, 605, and 805 augment the 5, the 225 (Here in CO) augment the 25. The 580, 680, and 780 augment the 80.

[CaliforniaDreamin']

I have a hypothetical question.

I'm planning on moving to LA next year and hopefully finding an apartment in the West Hollywood area. If for instance I would be working in downtown LA, would I be able to take side streets to work without ever getting on a freeway or is that impossible ?? Also, approximately how long would the commute from WeHo to downtown be ?

My reason for the question is a) to avoid the heaviest traffic and b) as I've never driven on freeways before, they kinda scare me LOL