Wife working in Woodland Hills, me in Santa Monica. Obligatory inquiry about living location.

[yourstrulia]

My mom lives in Encino and works in West L.A. (Olympic/405) and takes Sepulveda in off hours each morning - still takes her over an hour.

So do you mean that me leaving for the gym at 5:30AM would still find me sitting in rush hour traffic? If that's true then bummer....

[yourstrulia]

Also thanks everyone for the advice, very helpful.

[la_ennui]

As a person who grew up in Woodland Hills, has done this drive a ton, AND has a young kid, I would recommend that you live as close to your wife's work as possible so that at least one person doesn't waste their time commuting. Yours is going to suck fairly equally no matter what part of the valley you end up in so might as well maximize the amount of time that your wife can be with your child. Also, if you're comfortable driving on a winding canyon road, I do prefer the drive over Topanga Canyon to the 101-> 405 route (as long as there isn't an accident or closure, which as mentioned above, isn't too frequent) - at least you get some nice scenery.

[highlanderfil]

Originally Posted by yourstrulia

So do you mean that me leaving for the gym at 5:30AM would still find me sitting in rush hour traffic? If that's true then bummer....

Depends on which gym and what time you're planning on leaving it. If you do a full workout, shower and head out around 7:30-8, you could very well be screwed. She drives to work around 9:30-10 and it's still heavy at that time.

[yourstrulia]

Depends on which gym and what time you're planning on leaving it

I'm planning on leaving 5:30AM, workout a few city blocks from work at 6AM, leave at 7:30 and be at work by 8. Was thinking this would work since the drive is 2 min on side streets.

I would recommend that you live as close to your wife's work as possible so that at least one person doesn't waste their time commuting

We have an alternative, "crazy" idea that we would live in N. Hollywood, I take the red line Metro to 7th Street station, transfer to the Blue line ("Expo Phase 2" that's set to open May 20th and run to downtown Santa Monica), get off at Sepulveda and bicycle to work (13 minutes). So it still takes me an hour-plus to get to work. Buuuuuuutttt..... I get chauffeured, can read/do work as not driving, etc. Is this a harebrained scheme that wouldn't test well in reality?

[nightlysparrow]

You could also live in a place in Woodland Hills that has all-inclusive features---like a fitness center:

https://www.avaloncommunities.com/se...A/cityarea/425

[BRinSM]

Originally Posted by yourstrulia

We have an alternative, "crazy" idea that we would live in N. Hollywood, I take the red line Metro to 7th Street station, transfer to the Blue line ("Expo Phase 2" that's set to open May 20th and run to downtown Santa Monica), get off at Sepulveda and bicycle to work (13 minutes). So it still takes me an hour-plus to get to work. Buuuuuuutttt..... I get chauffeured, can read/do work as not driving, etc. Is this a harebrained scheme that wouldn't test well in reality?

i'd say that's a bad idea. north hollywood to woodland hills is still a tough commute, though the orange line may make it more palatable.

but based on the expo line stop and bike ride you mentioned i have to ask if you're really working in santa monica or are you closer to the 405? if your office is in west LA closer to the 405, that may make an encino commute more tolerable.

[thenext88]

What about west LA? Commuting up into the valley from west LA in the morning and back in the evening is a lot easier than the other way around. I commute from Santa Monica to Northridge and it's a 30 minute drive in the morning and 45 minutes on the way back, and pretty consistent. For those commuting the other direction... I see how bad that is every day.

And the only reason coming back is 50% longer is because I go all the way to Ocean Park, so I'm dealing with the 405/10 bottleneck coming home. But that doesn't usually build up until the Wilshire exit, so if you could even avoid that. If you have no reason to get on the 10.