Is it humanely possible to live in South OC and commute every day to LA (Irvine: school, place to live)
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BorisBlack, thank u sir, preciate the reply. I am a LoNG time stern guy from the NE. I miss Artie. I would be moving to OC from the NE and into a rental townhome or condo probably before i find a house to buy. I only say that because i have an amazing 4 year old labrador that i wouldnt want to Leave alone for too many 8-12 hour days if u know what i mean. He is VERY well behaved but we are so so close that i just want to be around to take him to park/beach/hiking you know.... If it wasnt for my bestfriend/dog/companion/labrador i would just suck up all that driving while listening to sirius/stern/sportstalk/newsradio!!! I am struggling with what to do. Where i live now, i take him to a doggy daycare-at a private house, a lady watches just a few dogs and we all pay her a decent amount- its kind of a nice setup and i would be moving out there not knowing ANYBODY. Which is fine, but itis whatbitnis, i still wouldnt know anybody. Like u had mentioned in another post, lagbeqch is amazing huh?
We live in North OC (Seal Beach) and my husband just started a job in Santa Monica. Most mornings it takes him anywhere from 30-45 min. to get to work. He leaves by 5am. If he leaves later it usually takes an hour. A couple times it has been longer due to an accident.
The commute home is awful! Until he is done with training he cannot leave until 4pm. The ride home is a minimum of 2 hours. Once he is done training he can leave at 3:00. Hopefully by then he will be able to get into a carpool.
Even then it will be at least an hour or more until he makes it home.
I know there is a carpool at his company from South OC, although not as far south as Laguna, and they leave at 4:30 every morning.
If my husband had to keep making the 2+ hour commute we would most likely move closer to LA. It is exhausting to say the least.
I cannot imagine your commute being any less than 2-3 hours going that far south. If you REALLY love your car I say go for it!
Location: Grosse Ile Michigan and Sometimes Orange County CA
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If you take the train, it can be acceptable. Get a 4g cellular antennae and bring a laptop and you can work, surf, catch up etcetera during the commute. When I took the train, I woudl work, sleep, read the paper, shave, socialize with other train people (if you ride regularly at the same time of day you will make "train friends" who often becoem very close friends). You can even have skype conferences with your family and get in some sort of family time.
If you drive, it is generally awful. You will adrrive on each end frustrated, harried, angry and exhausted/drained. It will wear you down. Some days it will take an hour, other days, it will take two or more hours. Since you never know, you will always have to leave a lot of time to ensure that you arrive on time. If you have kids, you will never be able to attend their school events (the train will not solve that problem for you, but you could watch their events on skype on your way home).
The downsides fo the train are that you are tied to the train schedule. they have a lot of train going in during the morning. A lot coming back in the later afternoon and early evening, but if you miss the 7 p.m. train home, you wait until 11 p.m. THere are very few or no mid day train runs.
Fromt eh train station you can take the subway to almost anyhwere in Downtown LA. but if you have to go to an area that is not serviced by the subway, you will have to take a pricy cab, or keep an old car somewhere near the train station.
Once in a while, the train gets held up. When it does, it can be held up for an hour or more. However this is rare. It is far more frequent to get held up commuting ont eh freeway.
The train stops in Orange, Santa Ana, Irvine San Juan Capistrano and San Clemente. Some of the trains only make certain stops. If you live within walking distance of the train station, it is great. Otherwise you have to drive to the station and park your car. Parking is free I think.
If you take the train, it is doable and may even be pleasant. You can meet new friends and even take a nap so that you arrive home or at work refreshed and raring to go (you first need some train friends who will wake you up so you do nto miss your stop). taking the train is net cheaper than driving, but it is close.
If the train is impractical for you, then the concept of that commute is crazy. Even if you find it tolerable at first, it will evnetually make your life miserable. the issue isnot just the distance, time or inconsistency. It just wears you down. You will be ticked off as often as not. Sooner or later it will wear on you. It is not just a long commute that is the problem, it is the nature of the commute. This is not like a two hour drive where you are drving for two hours. It is mostly stop and go, more stop than go, endless frustration, peole doing stupid things, getting cut off . . . .
I think if you are near the 73 tollroad, it would be doable.
If you had asked this forum whether you could live in Huntington Beach and work in LA, you would not get a fraction of the negative reactions. But, if you live next to the 73 in, for instance, Laguna Niguel or Aliso Viejo, you are really only 15-20 away from Huntington Beach on the 405.
I am not sure 15-20 minutes each way turns what might be a doable commute into a crazy, suicide inducing hell-ride.
San Clemente, on the other hand, does seem like a stretch.
been doing city of orange to santa monica since june 2011.
you HAVE on the 405 be passing the 605 by 530am latest or the ride through long beach gets nasty. then carson is ugly. then the south bay is disgusting. after you make it through all that you still have to deal with LAX and south Westside nonsense. do yourself a favor and just leave early, be passing that 605 I mentioned by 5am and you FLY (35-40 min) make it 6am and it sucks (60-75 min)
coming home is FUBAR. everyday. fast lanes often stop, as in come to a complete stop for 15-20 seconds just because ppl are retarded. no accident, no reason other than everyone slowing down and rolling to a stop in the middle of the freeway. to even have a chance at maintaining sanity, leave by 2pm.
not sure where in LA you will be working. as I said, I'm in santa monica so I get to add a solid 20-30 minutes just to get down to LAX or into downtown area if I decide to skip the 405.
if you are able to stay south and east of downtown, then getting out of LA proper can be quicker and the drive home might not be as painful.
Location: Grosse Ile Michigan and Sometimes Orange County CA
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THat is a good point. If you complete your drive before 6 a.m. you will rarely have problems and it will not be a bad commute. Somteims it stillg ets bad howevre. I recall on morning giong from Orange to Santa Barbra and at 3 a.m. going through LA was stop and go. Sometimes it is not too bad if you leave Orange County after 10 am. However not many peole can start work at 11 or 11:30.
For the trun trip, if you leave after 8 p.m. or before 2 p.m. it will usually not be too bad. It will not be free sailing like the moroning, but it may be tolerable.
Hey everybody, thnx in advance for your help. I would need to leave South OC every morning between 6 and 7 and would be driving back from LA between 3 and 5. I work in sales and would be covering everything from downtown LA and OC down to Anaheim. It includes, Santa Ana, Long Beach, Manhattan Beach and downtown LA. My territory does NOT include South OC unfortunately. I will NOT live in LA, no way. I would want to live in Laguna Niguel, maybe San Clemente, Ladera Ranch. Am i crazy, or is this possible??? Would my commute be 2-3 hours each way. please help? It has been a dream of mine to live in SOC, but maybe I should turn this job down. Thnx and God bless
I worked sales territories in south la and later west la/ south bay cities from Huntington Beach. As long as you get on the road by 6am going north and back heading south nlt 3 (preferably 2:30) you'll be ok. One exception always seemed to be fridays. Traffic seemed to start by 2, sometimes even earlier In the summer and holiday weekends. I averaged 45-60 minutes in the am and anywhere from 60-90 in the pm.
But to answer your original question south OC to LA in a car everyday has to one of Dante's circles of hell. Don't even think about doing it.
We used to live in Aliso Viejo and my husband would commute to school at the USC Medical Campus each day. He started out driving but that cost so much money and time that he came home exhausted every evening. Then he started taking the train, which allowed him to nap, read, study or do homework while on the way to or from school.
We then moved to Santa Ana, which has a great train station. It probably took 1hr 30m or so to get from Santa Ana to Los Angeles on the train.
We now are in Anaheim. The train stations here (specifically Fullerton) aren't as good...the Fullerton train station only has like 2 hour parking or something. My husband has to drive a little south to catch the train from the Anaheim station but it's still worth it.
The only problem is if you need a car to get to the train station in South OC and also a car to get to your work places in Los Angeles...that gets tricky.
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