Van Nuys Commute To Beverly Hills (Vista, Westwood: apartments, rental, house)

[rdowni]

I'm looking into moving to Van Nuys. I work in Beverly Hills, and have to arrive to work around 9:15am. Any word on how long this would take in the morning? Any shortcuts available? Any possibility to avoid the 405s by taking surface streets?

[SurekRZA]

I'm sure there are streets you could take to avoid the 405 but I really don't know which ones. You might want to try Sepulveda Blvd but I'm not sure. If you have to be there at work at 9:15, you should leave your house around 7:30am and it really shouldnt take you any more than an hour to get off the 405 in Westwood. I would get off Wilshire and take it all the way to Beverly Hills. Without traffic the commute takes less than 20 mins.

[Hungry For Cheese]

405-S
Sepulveda Pass
Beverly Glen
Coldwater Cyn

I'd leave no later than 7:45

[PaddyMac]

If you can possibly live south of Ventura Blvd in Van Nuys then you can join the Beverly Glen bumper-to-bumper crawl over the hill to Sunset. There are a lot of apartments along Dickens (one block south of Ventura Blvd) if you are still looking.

Beverly Glen picks up once all the feeder roads have merged just south of the traffic light at Beverly Glen/Valley Vista intersection, when it funnels down to one stream of cars going over the hill. But before the merge happens, you have all these cars trying to cross Ventura Blvd to go south on Van Nuys Blvd. or Beverly Glen; they also feed in from Valley Vista and all the side streets like Dickens and Greenleaf.

The closer you are to that Beverly Glen/Valley Vista intersection the sooner you'll get to join the single stream of cars. Hope that makes sense.

[greggd]

Originally Posted by rdowni

I'm looking into moving to Van Nuys. I work in Beverly Hills, and have to arrive to work around 9:15am. Any word on how long this would take in the morning? Any shortcuts available? Any possibility to avoid the 405s by taking surface streets?

I would suggest you look in and around beverly hills for an apartment rather than the valley. The time and expenses you would save may offset the savings in housing.

[majoun]

Originally Posted by PaddyMac

If you can possibly live south of Ventura Blvd in Van Nuys then you can join the Beverly Glen bumper-to-bumper crawl over the hill to Sunset. There are a lot of apartments along Dickens (one block south of Ventura Blvd) if you are still looking.

Beverly Glen picks up once all the feeder roads have merged just south of the traffic light at Beverly Glen/Valley Vista intersection, when it funnels down to one stream of cars going over the hill. But before the merge happens, you have all these cars trying to cross Ventura Blvd to go south on Van Nuys Blvd. or Beverly Glen; they also feed in from Valley Vista and all the side streets like Dickens and Greenleaf.

The closer you are to that Beverly Glen/Valley Vista intersection the sooner you'll get to join the single stream of cars. Hope that makes sense.

Coldwater is better than Beverly Glen, that's my usual route into and out of the Valley

[LALady]

Originally Posted by Hungry For Cheese

405-S
Sepulveda Pass
Beverly Glen
Coldwater Cyn

I'd leave no later than 7:45

Yep. Those are the only choices to avoid the 405. Beverly Glen begins where Van Nuys Boulevard ends crossing Ventura Boulevard. It can take as long at 20 minutes to travel about 1 mile because so many cars are squeezing off of side roads onto Beverly Glen. Good news - most days there is a traffic cop managing the mayhem.

Sepulveda crowds up North of Magnolia, near the Galleria. Sometime you get lucky and it takes a few lights to get thru the Ventura Boulevard intersection. Sometimes you aren't so lucky.

[LALady]

Originally Posted by greggd

I would suggest you look in and around beverly hills for an apartment rather than the valley. The time and expenses you would save may offset the savings in housing.

You think so?

[greggd]

Originally Posted by LALady

You think so?

yes, I do.

If he's working in beverly hills, apartments east of beverly hills, south, and west can offer either a slightly more expensive unit or smaller unit for the
same cost as living in the nicer parts of the valley. Especially when you
compare valley areas right off of, or south of ventura blvd.

I was stunned a few years ago at the small difference between rental units in these areas compared to west la.

Unless the op is looking to move further north into van nuys territory or NO. Hlywd. the difference isnt that much. In VN & NHlywd units can be found for under $1,000. But, he will deal with an over the hill commute twice a day.