Young gay male taking job in Santa Monica, but wants to live in West Hollywood.

[pure_mercury]

Originally Posted by disgruntled la native

You're mostly right, it's an interesting geographical thing. WeHo is centered around streets like Robertson and La Cienega (their northern terminus is in WeHo) and thats about 8 miles from Santa Monica beach. But the southern ends of Robertson and La Cienega (Where they intersect with Washington, Venice in Culver City) are much closer to the beach, more like 5 miles. So it must mean Santa Monica beach goes further west than the Marina del Rey area beaches.

To get into Beverly Hills or WeHo, I usually take Inglewood up to Palms, then Palms over to Beverwil/Castle Heights or Robertson, then head north. Only a couple of miles on each, and not nearly as bad north/south on those roads as stuff further west (Centinela is basically a parking lot during rush hour, for instance). I have to wait three lights to make a left on Washington Pl. and Centinela to get up to Venice or Palms or wherever during rush hour.

[markb90]

It's not worth it. WeHo is too far from Santa Monica. I've used the subway and the train to get to SM and lemme tell ya it takes a while. Not to mention the buses often have different schedules.. some would say (SHORT) which takes you way far from SM.

[disgruntled la native]

Originally Posted by markb90

It's not worth it. WeHo is too far from Santa Monica. I've used the subway and the train to get to SM and lemme tell ya it takes a while. Not to mention the buses often have different schedules.. some would say (SHORT) which takes you way far from SM.

WeHo is NOT too far from santa monica, and there's no subway or train that even goes from Sm to weho so your post sounds like a troll! The bus (704 during day, 4 at night) is almost always consistent during weekdays.

[ladude]

I live in weho and commute to Santa Monica daily. It is manageable, but only if you like to hang out in Santa Monica until at least 7:30pm. Driving directly there along Santa Monica Blvd:

+ Leaving for SM between 7:15 and 8:15am, it takes 40-60 minutes.
+ Coming back to WH before 7:30pm, the commute is very bad. I would definitely expect around 1-1.5 hours in frustrating stop-and-go traffic. The last time I left SM at 5:45pm, it took 2 hours, but that was probably just a bad day.
+ Coming back to WH after 8:30pm, it may take 30-40 minutes.

The bus is also an option -- the 704 is a good line and may only take ~60 minutes each way. The downsides are:
+ All of your coworkers will likely drive or cycle to work.
+ It is full of homeless people late at night.
+ In the morning, you will not get a seat for the first 20 minutes.

[bpeeps]

Originally Posted by ladude

I live in weho and commute to Santa Monica daily. It is manageable, but only if you like to hang out in Santa Monica until at least 7:30pm. Driving directly there along Santa Monica Blvd:

+ Leaving for SM between 7:15 and 8:15am, it takes 40-60 minutes.
+ Coming back to WH before 7:30pm, the commute is very bad. I would definitely expect around 1-1.5 hours in frustrating stop-and-go traffic. The last time I left SM at 5:45pm, it took 2 hours, but that was probably just a bad day.
+ Coming back to WH after 8:30pm, it may take 30-40 minutes.

The bus is also an option -- the 704 is a good line and may only take ~60 minutes each way. The downsides are:
+ All of your coworkers will likely drive or cycle to work.
+ It is full of homeless people late at night.
+ In the morning, you will not get a seat for the first 20 minutes.

You commute using SMB? Santa Monica between Doheny and Wilshire is a traffic light nightmare. I usually cut through Beverly Hills side streets, Elevado takes you all the way to Wilshire and behind the Beverly Hilton. Or I just take Sunset through BH. Actually Sunset is a better route from west of Doheny all the way to Beverly Glen or Hilgard. Once you hit UCLA on Sunset, you're stuck with all the 405 merging traffic.

[ladude]

Originally Posted by bpeeps

You commute using SMB? Santa Monica between Doheny and Wilshire is a traffic light nightmare. I usually cut through Beverly Hills side streets, Elevado takes you all the way to Wilshire and behind the Beverly Hilton. Or I just take Sunset through BH. Actually Sunset is a better route from west of Doheny all the way to Beverly Glen or Hilgard. Once you hit UCLA on Sunset, you're stuck with all the 405 merging traffic.

Thanks for the suggestions. I tried Elevado and the savings is minimal, at least at that time of day. I'd rather wait in a short amount of traffic on SMB than slog through never-ending stopsigns on Elevado.

Sunset is wonderfully traffic-free (I used to commute to UCLA) -- but from where I start in weho, I end up in major traffic until Doheny, then going back south to rejoin SMB is traffic-heavy. So again minimal savings, if any. :-(

[disgruntled la native]

Where are you starting in WeHo? Cynthia can take you from Palm to Doheny, and you can rejoin Sunset from residential Beverly Hills. If you're further east, there's Holloway (if north) and Willoughby (if south)

Elevado/Carmelita/Lomita is still better than Santa Monica Blvd when traffic is really bad. Those stop signs can fly by if you do a "California roll"

[bpeeps]

Originally Posted by ladude

Thanks for the suggestions. I tried Elevado and the savings is minimal, at least at that time of day. I'd rather wait in a short amount of traffic on SMB than slog through never-ending stopsigns on Elevado.

Sunset is wonderfully traffic-free (I used to commute to UCLA) -- but from where I start in weho, I end up in major traffic until Doheny, then going back south to rejoin SMB is traffic-heavy. So again minimal savings, if any. :-(

Yeah I used to commute to UCLA as well. For a while, my daily route ended up being Holloway to Sunset, Sunset to Hilgard. Even though my GPS always told me the faster route was SMB to Wilshire and then cutting through the neighborhood directly east of UCLA. I took Elevado when I used to commute to Century City. Avoiding the SMB/Wilshire intersection was worth it alone for me.

Coming back from UCLA my short stretch on Sunset from Doheny to Holloway was always the most painful part of the commute, so I feel you. I think I ended up taking a route through side streets to avoid Sunset east of Doheny. Probably something similar to what disgruntled said.

[Those Who Squirm]

Originally Posted by Mike121

Look. Just don't do it. The most important rule of living in greater Los Angeles is to live near your job.

The second most important rule: If you absolutely won't or can't live near your job, at least don't live beyond the 405. Depending on the direction and whether it's morning or evening, the traffic speed on Santa Monica, Wilshire, or Sunset can sink to pedestrian levels for the mile or two leading up to the on-ramps. Pico and Olympic may be a smidgen better because they share an on-ramp midway between, so on those thoroughfares there's not quite so much backed up traffic. But the whole West Side from National northwards can get pretty badly gridlocked in the late afternoon.

Third most important rule: If you do live beyond the 405, try using a street that doesn't have an onramp to the 405, like Palms.