How does traffic in Houston compare to LA? (Sugar Land: hotel, house)

[ladylibrarian]

I currently live in LA and one of the things I hate about this place is the endless traffic. It takes me an hour and half to drive 8 miles to a friends house after work. Also as LA is very spread out my meetings for work are inevitably a long trek. I'm thinking about moving to Houston to be able to buy a home, but still live in a big city. Is the traffic situation any better?

[tstone]

I've only been on vacation there but I can tell you LA traffic is much worse than here! We're probably just as spread out here as far as square mileage goes, but with far less people. Outside of the standard rush hours of 6:30-9:30 and 4-7, provided there are no accidents, you can easily average 60 mph. In LA it seemed like no matter what time of day I was out, traffic crawled.

[sunny57]

The traffic here is awful, but an hour & a half to go 8 miles? I don't think so...I would lose my mind! It really depends on what part of town you want to live & work in. Some are better than others.... it does seem like the roads are always under construction though!?!.

[jimboburnsy]

I have a cousin in LA. She told me she had a 45 minute drive to get to work four miles away and I thought she was exaggerating in an effort to emphasize how terrible LA traffic is. It turns out there was no exaggeration at all. LA traffic is definitely 200% worse than Houston. Traffic is no picnic here; you will not suddenly breathe deeply and bask in the glory of uncongested roadways and congratulate yourself on a wonderful victory over LA's traffic, but you'll be able to buy a 5,000 sq. ft. 2-story house for the price of a 1,200 sq. ft. bungalow in LA (not kidding). You'll still have an hour commute each way but you'll be covering 20 miles in that time instead of 8.

[mtbmike]

I've done a couple of projects in LA, I think not only is is better in general, the main aspect is that it is a shorter peak time.

If you can work some eariler hours and miss the 1.5 hr prime time, then Houston is very good compared to other cities. I know a lot of people that live in Sugar Land and work downtown and can be there in 30 minutes if you work 6:30am to 3:30pm or do the later 9:00 to after 6:00. The other day I was at 2 Houston center downtown at 3:30 and was sitting infront of Whole Foods in Sugar Land at 4:00. Might vary for some of the other surburbs, but that's my experience.

[ladylibrarian]

having definable rush hours seems much better than the unpredictable traffic here. i've driven to LAX at midnight and been bumper to bumper, and when i work at 8 am on a saturday the exits are closed for repairs and i end up late to work.

[EJ4512]

I have been to LA and the traffic is not even close. LA has HORRID traffic at all times of the day. The only time I ever was not in traffic in LA was at 3 AM going back to the hotel from a club in WEHO. And that was honestly the ONLY time. We had to spend a lot of time on the highway while doing the tourist stuff, Santa monica, Downtown, Hollywood, went up to Glendale, Long Beach, OC (knotts) and we spent HOURS AND HOURS of the week in traffic no matter what highway and what time.

Houston does have traffic, and i've spent time in the traffic complaining, but no comparison to LA. In houston you can actually hit the speed limit many times in a day. And there are rush hour peaks, other times its just fine.

[robertpolyglot]

I've been to Houston but have never crawled around during rush hour.

I've spent the first 25 years of my life in LA (less 3 "across the pond"), and I can tell you a couple of things, though I've been gone:
- LA has a coastline which the metro area hugs, meaning that the whole "coastal crescent" has to use I-405. That's your only option (damn morons did not put a rail line here and it could have been useful)
- Your only major interior artery which flows in an uinterrupted fashion from OC to LA to "the Valley" (yeah, THAT Valley) is I-5, so that gets way too much traffic....and it's a crappy old freeway near downtown
- In an E-W direction, only I-10 is there to go from the beach to downtown and all the way to the inland suburbs (and to "yous guys" and to JAX!)
- Other freeways such as the 60 and the 101 do a good deal of similar service, so they are crowded
- Still other freeways see less traffic because they handle further out or limited areas.

Houston is a little inland from a geographical encroachment such as a coastline. You have less people and less density (bad, because it puts people into cars and because rail doesn't get to where they are), you have 2 full loops and are planning a 3rd, you have a nice spoke system going out to various suburban growth areas.

My 2 cents, for what it's worth. So, I think Houston moves its traffic with more ease.

[Lake Conroe resident]

Originally Posted by ladylibrarian

having definable rush hours seems much better than the unpredictable traffic here. i've driven to LAX at midnight and been bumper to bumper, and when i work at 8 am on a saturday the exits are closed for repairs and i end up late to work.

I too have sat on the 405 for endless hours... I can tell you that the morning and evening rush hours are congested here like any big city but nothing like LA. Like you state even at 12AM there's still traffic on the 405, just too many people in one area and it's called Southern California...

[movingtohouston]

We lived in Ca before we moved here and the big difference is how people drive. They drive fast. Its a big change from constantly being in a traffic jam to suddenly being able to drive fast. Exits and on ramps are different here too. They are shorter so that takes some getting used to as well.