Driving in LA (Los Angeles, Anaheim, Burbank: how much, buy, taxes)

[miranda104]

Hey It's the dude who is moving to LA sooner than I think. When I get there a major change in my life will be driving everywhere I go. I heard that the traffic is a pain in the ass and it takes forever to get somewhere So my question is explain how driving is on the streets of LA. My uncle tells me it takes more time than expected on a given day to get somewhere. I just want to know peoples personal daily experiences with driving. What places are extremely flooded with traffic.

I will be mainly traveling back and fourth between the following areas Anaheim, Santa Monica, Montebello, and sometimes different parks of Burbank How are the traffic in these areas? Thanks dudes.

[KnoxTown]

You are in for a tremendous headache.

[BennyPhoenix]

Driving between those places is a supreme pain. Especially when traffic is bad, which is almost always.
I've seen bad traffic in LA even at midnight. The only time when there is little traffic is Christmas day, Thanksgiving day, when the Super bowl is on, and on that day that Illegal Aliens decided not to work to show everybody how much we need them, which proved that we didn't need them(another subject for another time). When I moved here about 15 years ago you could get on the freeway at 7am and the freeway would move well enough to get you across time quickly. Now you would need to get on the freeway at 6am to do the same. And sometimes I've been on the freeway at 6am and the traffic is jammed badly.
LA has a lot of good things going for it, but traffic is not one of them.

[greggd]

Originally Posted by miranda104

I will be mainly traveling back and fourth between the following areas Anaheim, Santa Monica, Montebello, and sometimes different parks of Burbank How are the traffic in these areas? Thanks dudes.

South, West, East, North/east

Hopefully you will be doing this after 9am and before 3pm.

[ZenMaster2008]

Buy stock in Tylenol as others have suggested. Those drives are going to be horrible.

[ElleBebe]

To share a recent experience: we decided to go to Disneyland on a Friday, leaving from West Hollywood. We had made the trip before on a Saturday morning; we left at 7:15 and got there at 8 AM - no traffic, easy driving. So 45 minutes. On the Friday in question, we left at 3 PM; we didn't get there until 6:30. There was a huge accident on 101 and we were going maybe 2 miles an hour when it wasn't at a standstill (it took us an hour to get one mile), so we got off and went down to 10, which was better, but then there was traffic on 5 the entire way.

Santa Monica is at least 20 minutes from WeHo, with good traffic. If there's bad traffic all the way from Santa Monica to Anaheim, you could be looking at half a day in the car.

[ohhi]

somtimes it takes me 35 minutes to drive from koreatown to weho. like 4-5 miles

[AnUnidentifiedMale]

This is depressing to read about, isn't it?

It reminds me of one of Steve Lopez's columns in the L.A. Times where he said that even if every transportation solution is implemented in L.A., traffic will still continue to get worse.

That's with all of the subways, tollways, bike lanes, bus lanes, expansion of freeways, congestion pricing, and new taxes on gasoline. Ugh.

Here's his article, if you're interested:

Being right takes its toll - Los Angeles Times

[CESpeed]

The idea of having to drive between Anaheim, Santa Monica, Montebello and Burbank on a regular basis makes me wanna.....

I would only wish this type of commuting on someone I didn't like very much. Find out where you'll be going the most and live near there. That will help aleviate some of your stress level. Make sure your car radio is set to your favorite stations, have your favorite cds on hand, and make sure you LOVE your car because you'll be spending a lot of time in it.

[Jaymum]

If you've actually driven much in NYC or New Jersey, then ignore most of the above posts; you've seen worse. If not, then the warnings are very clear: travel off-peak, or spend hours in the car. Great music helps ease the pain, though.