405 Traffic Less than in 2004? Why? (Los Angeles, Irvine: 2013, big house, to live in)

[goodheathen]

I'm convinced that 405 traffic has not increased over the past decade, which probably goes against big-city trends. I suspect 405 traffic actually has decreased (consistent with the media surprise that Carmaggedon didn't result in a traffic disaster). Granted, I haven't been on the 405 regularly in years, but even when I've been on it during rush hour, I've sometimes seen it much lighter than in the old days. If there has been a decline, why? Some possible reasons: more public transportation options, rising gas prices, highway widening (more a masking factor and likely minor, as it's recent), decline of the middle class and general decline of 9-to-5 jobs, aging local population. Comments, please?

[BRinSM]

the 405 stretches from sylmar to irvine, which section are you referring to? i'm sure some portions have gotten worse in the last 10 years.

[goodheathen]

Middle of the Valley to the Irvine end.

[thelopez2]

I feel the same way and think there is much less traffic on the 405 and 110. I can't speak about the valley. I think in 2000 the economy was booming, people bought big houses far from work and commuted. Homes prices were doubling. They bought even bigger and further way, commuting hours in rush hour. Then recession hit, jobs were lost, others just walked way from their home and moved and rented closer to work. During the recession dinks became sinks, learned to cut back on cost, moved out of state with the soccer mom SUV and live a happy life in places like Colorado and Texas.

In comes the reasonable people from the rest of the country and say why do you guys drive an hour each way, I'm just going to live in DTLA, close to work and not need to drive. Instead of paying an extra $300 a month in gas, they just put another $200 towards rent.

I think more and more people are carpooling too.

[bpeeps]

Conjecture and anecdotal information, thought there might be some facts or statistics here.

[jm1982]

thelopez2, your theory could help to explain this.
The traffic getting ONTO the freeway is actually worse than being on the freeway. It can take me longer to get on the freeway (3miles) than the whole rest of the commute on the freeway (like 15 miles)...which is just insane!

One part of this theory though I have an issue with. The idea that people are saying "the hell with it..I'll just move to DTLA"...the population of DTLA has gone up...but it's still a small population.

Downtown looks to have about 52,400 residents .
Downtown LA Demographic Survey 2013 Results : DowntownLA.com

To put it in perspective, the San Fernando Valley has over 1.75million residents.. and that data is a bit old now too so it's likely higher.
U.S. Census Bureau Releases Snapshot of San Fernando Valley | Congressman Brad Sherman, Representing the 30th District of California

The more than 1.75 million people who live in the Valley exceed the populations of all but the four largest cities in the United States – New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston.

Another perspective is that the Valley has around 33x (3300%!) more residents than DTLA.

To be fair the daytime population of DTLA is much higher I believe around 400,000 or more..and those people really help to support many of the businesses in the area.

I don't think many people realize how few people actually live in DTLA .

Although not many people live in DTLA..the cultural impact/trendiness of DTLA is probably much higher than the entire valley.

One big reason I am kind of skeptical about all the efforts the city seems to be making and focusing on DTLA is because a relatively small number of people live there.

Being super DTLA centric/focused seems kind of crazy when so few people live there...relatively speaking..

More people live in Reseda, Pacoima than in DTLA

About twice as many people live in PACOIMA as in DTLA!

[goodheathen]

Gee, #5 is helpful.

It's not like I hadn't looked before.

As of now, I have these.
Vital Statistics: More Information
I-405 In LA Named Busiest Interstate In Any U.S. City « CBS Los Angeles
They might not cover the same stretch.

There are possibly relevant raw statistics at Traffic Data Branch but I'm not going to crunch all those numbers.

[bpeeps]

Originally Posted by goodheathen

Gee, #5 is helpful.

It's not like I hadn't looked before.

As of now, I have these.
Vital Statistics: More Information
I-405 In LA Named Busiest Interstate In Any U.S. City « CBS Los Angeles
They might not cover the same stretch.

There are possibly relevant raw statistics at Traffic Data Branch but I'm not going to crunch all those numbers.

Yeah, that top article is actually linked here on the forums from a couple months back. Every other article I've found seems to be unfortunately outdated.

[thelopez2]

I use DTLA figuratively speaking also as a plug for its revitalization, but it could be the westside for entertainment, Burbank for studio, southbay for aerospace, culver city for Sony.

I didn't carry a GPS back in 2004, but 10 years from now ill have actual data to compare.

[goodheathen]

I think DTLA's impact on stabilizing or reducing 405 traffic might be greater than its population numbers, due to the yuppie factor. The people who typically are highway commuters are gravitating toward an area where they need the 405 less.