SF Bay Area - Worst Commutes in the NATION (Los Angeles: pollution, parking)

[sav858]

Originally Posted by 04kL4nD

I like that laundry list of bad commutes in the Bay Area. Very thoughtful and detailed.

You can thank SFGate.com for that since that is where he copied and pasted that list from

[04kL4nD]

I figured it was a Google copy/pasta job. SFGate made TOO much sense

[DocGoldstein]

Originally Posted by sonarrat

That doesn't even cover half of the really bad commutes, and pretty much nothing south of Hayward. Have you ever tried to drive from San Jose to Oakland in the afternoon on 880? How about the 20 minute backups at the Capitol Expwy exit from 101 southbound that run as late as 9 pm sometimes? The massive delays transitioning from southbound 680 onto southbound 101 on getaway weekends? The approach to the Sunol Grade on northbound I-680, which still has no carpool lane and only 3 total?

Ah forgot about I680 Northbound with the approach to the Sunol Grade. That's absolutely a parking lot, probably as bad if not worse than 10 west in SoCal coming out of Santa Monica.

[sonarrat]

Originally Posted by DocGoldstein

Ah forgot about I680 Northbound with the approach to the Sunol Grade. That's absolutely a parking lot, probably as bad if not worse than 10 west in SoCal coming out of Santa Monica.

Sure you meant 10 east. You can only take 1 west from Santa Monica.

The worst spots I usually see on the Google maps for the Los Angeles area are the Mission Junction in the downtown/Skid Row area, the 405/10 junction in Santa Monica, 405 on the Sepulveda Pass, the Orange Crush, and eastbound 91 approaching Corona. But there are hardly any freeways that are ever completely clear.

[ccm123]

Afternoon NB I-880 from Santa Clara County to Oakland has got to be one of the worst commutes. So does the approach to Sunol grade from I-680 in the afternoon.

Originally Posted by sonarrat

That doesn't even cover half of the really bad commutes, and pretty much nothing south of Hayward. Have you ever tried to drive from San Jose to Oakland in the afternoon on 880? How about the 20 minute backups at the Capitol Expwy exit from 101 southbound that run as late as 9 pm sometimes? The massive delays transitioning from southbound 680 onto southbound 101 on getaway weekends? The approach to the Sunol Grade on northbound I-680, which still has no carpool lane and only 3 total?

[socalinnorcal]

Okay so I do have to comment about traffic being bad in LA all the time. It depends on the freeway, of course, but when I lived on the westside I would find myself in traffic on the 405 on a Saturday night (we're talking 9pm, 10pm... a few times even at midnight). Now we're not talking "parking lot-type" traffic, but it was bad enough and slow enough to make my spouse and I think, "This is totally nuts." And there were a few random late nights that were a parking lot on the 405.

We were just down in socal over a weekend in February and we were driving into the LA/OC area around 9pm on a Friday. We could go 65 mph, but the freeway was crowded. So, by LA standards I would hardly call that "bad," b/c at least we were able to drive the speed limit, but I don't see that on 680 at 9pm on any night of the week. In fact, there are few cars at that time.

I agree that Bay Area traffic is really bad. And I agree that some areas rival LA in a way that is surprising to those who feel BART is some sort of godsend to our region in helping curb congestion. I guess it is sort of b/c can you imagine if we didn't have BART? Holy %$#!

Anyways, LA traffic can be bad outside of commute hours in a way that Bay Area traffic doesn't *seem* to be. I knew LA traffic patterns frontwards and backwards when I lived there so that I could enjoy the various parts of my life that weren't on the westside and let me tell you-- there were only a small handful of hours every week I felt confident going out knowing I probably wouldn't get stuck in a parking lot.

In a nutshell, I think the commute hours during a.m. and p.m. are about equally as gnarly in the Bay Area and in LA. The difference, IMO, lies in the off-commute hours. LA seems to always have a steady stream of cars whereas the Bay Area freeways at least have significant chunks of time where the traffic is far lighter.

In the end though.... let's be honest-- both places are terrible for traffic.

[DocGoldstein]

Originally Posted by sonarrat

Sure you meant 10 east. You can only take 1 west from Santa Monica.

The worst spots I usually see on the Google maps for the Los Angeles area are the Mission Junction in the downtown/Skid Row area, the 405/10 junction in Santa Monica, 405 on the Sepulveda Pass, the Orange Crush, and eastbound 91 approaching Corona. But there are hardly any freeways that are ever completely clear.

Oops, yeah. East coming out of SM towards the city.

55 East/north I remember being ridiculous from 3pm to 7pm in Santa Ana.

But the 405 "all day" traffic I feel is exaggerated. I've gone from SM to the 134 without any traffic around 7pm. But I guess people who live in Oakland 400 miles know better because they read something on Google. In fact I'd say I80 is comparable to the 405 in traffic congestion during commute times, and off hour times.

[DocGoldstein]

Originally Posted by socalinnorcal

Okay so I do have to comment about traffic being bad in LA all the time. It depends on the freeway, of course, but when I lived on the westside I would find myself in traffic on the 405 on a Saturday night (we're talking 9pm, 10pm... a few times even at midnight). Now we're not talking "parking lot-type" traffic, but it was bad enough and slow enough to make my spouse and I think, "This is totally nuts." And there were a few random late nights that were a parking lot on the 405.

We were just down in socal over a weekend in February and we were driving into the LA/OC area around 9pm on a Friday. We could go 65 mph, but the freeway was crowded. So, by LA standards I would hardly call that "bad," b/c at least we were able to drive the speed limit, but I don't see that on 680 at 9pm on any night of the week. In fact, there are few cars at that time.

I agree that Bay Area traffic is really bad. And I agree that some areas rival LA in a way that is surprising to those who feel BART is some sort of godsend to our region in helping curb congestion. I guess it is sort of b/c can you imagine if we didn't have BART? Holy %$#!

Anyways, LA traffic can be bad outside of commute hours in a way that Bay Area traffic doesn't *seem* to be. I knew LA traffic patterns frontwards and backwards when I lived there so that I could enjoy the various parts of my life that weren't on the westside and let me tell you-- there were only a small handful of hours every week I felt confident going out knowing I probably wouldn't get stuck in a parking lot.

In a nutshell, I think the commute hours during a.m. and p.m. are about equally as gnarly in the Bay Area and in LA. The difference, IMO, lies in the off-commute hours. LA seems to always have a steady stream of cars whereas the Bay Area freeways at least have significant chunks of time where the traffic is far lighter.

In the end though.... let's be honest-- both places are terrible for traffic.

I think this is a fair assessment.

Let's be honest though, Westside L.A is always jammed because of a couple of things.

1)It's a major tourist destination
2)It's the place to be during the evenings (Westwood I love)
3)Beaches

But the area around Long Beach? Or past Santa Monica going into Ventura? You won't find those places jammed all day, in fact the 405 going into Ventura is a ghost town at 8PM-midnight. The only places I know that get jammed a lot on the 405 are the Westside/Airport/10 intersection, and then the 22/405 intersection. Other than that, the 405 is pretty normal.

[sav858]

Originally Posted by socalinnorcal

Anyways, LA traffic can be bad outside of commute hours in a way that Bay Area traffic doesn't *seem* to be. I knew LA traffic patterns frontwards and backwards when I lived there so that I could enjoy the various parts of my life that weren't on the westside and let me tell you-- there were only a small handful of hours every week I felt confident going out knowing I probably wouldn't get stuck in a parking lot.

In a nutshell, I think the commute hours during a.m. and p.m. are about equally as gnarly in the Bay Area and in LA. The difference, IMO, lies in the off-commute hours. LA seems to always have a steady stream of cars whereas the Bay Area freeways at least have significant chunks of time where the traffic is far lighter.

In the end though.... let's be honest-- both places are terrible for traffic.

That has been my experience. As someone who mainly visited on weekends I was surprised by the amount of traffic on it's freeways during that time. I never seen stop and go traffic on Sunday at 11pm like I have on the 405.

I used to drive between the the Bay Area and San Diego often and basically made sure to only drive through LA in the middle of the night because anytime during the day was hellish. The worst part of the drive was that sprawly mess that is LA.

[Senno]

Originally Posted by DocGoldstein

Oakland is the closest big city to where I live. In fact, you could say I live in Oakland metro.

Doc, I just barely let you be considered "bay area" again, don't push it.