Commute Times: Costa Mesa/South Coast Plaza to Long Beach/The Block in AM ? (Santa Ana: construction, school)

[hularious]

I'm considering living near South Coast Plaza and I will have commutes to The Block in Orange and to Long Beach off the 405/Atlantic Blvd.

I tried search and a lot of the information is 2 years old, so maybe anyone can shed some new light on what type of commute/how long it will take/best routes for:

SCP to LB in AM (405? surface?)
LB to SCP in PM

SCP to TBlock in AM
TBlock to SCP in PM

Thanks!

[hularious]

anyone? bueller?

[EscapeCalifornia]

We live very near South Coast Plaza and my wife used to work by The Block. She worked 7am to 5pm. It took her about 20 minutes in the morning and 25 minutes in the evening, taking Fairview or Bristol through Santa Ana.

[russlancea]

Not sure if this will help, since I don't really live in Costa Mesa. I get on the 405 N at Beach Blvd and exit the 405 at LB Blvd. I leave work late-- 10 AM and traffic NB is great to LB. A few times, I've had to get in to work earlier, so I've left at 5:30, 7, 8, 9, etc. and there's more cars, but the flow is still good. I think it takes me about 20 minutes to get to work.

Only bumper to bumper if there's an accident. The accidents have mostly been in LB city limits, so I usually exit the fwy and take surface streets that run along the 405 (i.e. Willow) and re-enter the fwy once I know I've passed the trouble spot (listen to radio traffic reports).

Traffic seems to always be bad in the opposite direction regardless of when I leave--even at 10 AM it's like bumper to bumper on the 405 S.

[bhcompy]

55N loads up early if I recall and the Orange Crush isn't the best. Surface from Costa Mesa to Orange probably isn't all that bad though, like EscapeCalifornia suggested, as long as you keep up on the construction work on Santa Ana roads(which seems to never stop).

As far as the 405N, Euclid is a bottleneck because of the lowering number of lanes that starts at/after the 55, Beach Blvd/HB is a bottleneck, and all of the traffic heading in to the South Bay can really slow the drive down. It's not terrible, but it's not great either. The only real viable surface route is PCH, and some people have suggested here on the forum before, but you'd be too far away from it anyways for it to be worth the attempt. There are no other roads that parallel the 405, but depending on where exactly you might live you could avoid some of the traffic(Euclid and HB) by taking Warner to the 405.

[hularious]

Hey, thanks all for the good tips. I was wondering if Bristol would be a good option especially during afternoon rush hour, so thanks EscapeCali for the Fairview/Bristol Tip.

What about taking 405 to 22, to PCH. Some of the places I will be working at are off of PCH, but being one of the major roads, was curious about congestion there.

As for coming back home, is 405 S from LB to Costa Mesa just a lost cause? i would imagine that route takes about 45-50 minutes during PM Rush Hour...I could try to bypass some by taking surface streets...perhaps take Willow like russlancea suggested?

[EscapeCalifornia]

Originally Posted by hularious

As for coming back home, is 405 S from LB to Costa Mesa just a lost cause? i would imagine that route takes about 45-50 minutes during PM Rush Hour...I could try to bypass some by taking surface streets...perhaps take Willow like russlancea suggested?

405 south in the afternoon through there isn't bad. Surface streets would take much longer.

[bhcompy]

405S isn't terrible, but it can take 30-45 minutes.

As far as using the 22, 7th street is always congested and the college is right off the freeway there before PCH, so there will be some delays. It's not too bad up until about 715 or 730am though, then it will load up as commercial traffic arrives, people head in to school, etc.

[hularious]

hey thanks everyone...i find it pretty odd that the traffic is busy going south in the morning and north in the afternoon on the 405 around huntington/fountain valley area...

is it because everyone is going to work in irvine?

[bhcompy]

In this specific area, yea. Not too many commute to the South Bay from south OC as the drive is too long. Western OC is kind of the border for that commute which is why the 405 backs up from Long Beach through the South Bay Curve.