New to the area - realistic commuting to Santa Monica (Los Angeles: elementary schools, quality of life)

[TimRBoston]

Hey all - I am working in Santa Monica, but my wife and I are attracted to the South Bay (schools, community). Given normal commuting times, what would the commute be like from Manhattan or Hermosa Beach? My office is near the Santa Monica airport.

Thanks!

[BRinSM]

it would be about an hour each way, depending on how close you live to the freeway.

[disgruntled la native]

Yeah, about an hour is right. It's not a great commute. While the beach cities have their appeal I don't see why you wouldn't live in Santa Monica which is quite family friendly

[Zachary B.]

Agreed. I live in the South Bay and it is very nice, but your quality of life in L.A. is going to be directly tied to how close you live to your work. Santa Monica, Culver City, Pacific Palisades, Venice, even Topanga ... each has a different feel, but I think each offers something great for family living.

While this is targeted more at travelers than people relocating to LA, you can read more about Venice, Santa Monica and Topanga at this blog:
Everything L.A.

[TimRBoston]

Thanks for the quick replies...very helpful!

[s0nginmyheart]

It will take you about an hour each way. I used to make the commute from Torrance to West L.A./Santa Monica for 6.5 years.

Over time I found some short cuts that would shave off a good amount of minutes from the commute, but I think this one will help you the best:

If taking the 405N, bypass all the LAX traffic by taking the La Cienega Blvd exit.
LEFT at Knowlton Street (small street, no light/stop sign... if I can recall)
RIGHT on La Tijera Blvd
LEFT on Centinela
Follow Centinela all the way down when it merges into Jefferson
RIGHT on Centinela
This will take you all the way up to SMO

(note: you could take La Cienega all the way to Centinela and turn left, but this is a heavy intersection so you'd be waiting a long time to turn left). I'd also avoid Sepulveda because it doesn't move any faster than the 405.

Check out my directions on Google maps and see if it makes sense for you. Hope this helps.

[Mike121]

To keep it simple, just know that you should plan for a 12mph commute out in West LA and Santa Monica. It may often be faster, but, your commute should reliably be at least 12 mph. So, if you want to keep to a 30 minute commute, just draw a 6 mile circle around your work and live within there.

By that rule of thumb, I wouldn't try living south of Marina del Rey.

The better schools districts in that 6 mile circle are in Santa Monica and Culver City, but the school performance map website also says that a couple of the Los Angeles Unified elementary schools in the Mar Vista area are pretty good.

[smokingGun]

Originally Posted by s0nginmyheart

It will take you about an hour each way. I used to make the commute from Torrance to West L.A./Santa Monica for 6.5 years.

Over time I found some short cuts that would shave off a good amount of minutes from the commute, but I think this one will help you the best:

If taking the 405N, bypass all the LAX traffic by taking the La Cienega Blvd exit.
LEFT at Knowlton Street (small street, no light/stop sign... if I can recall)
RIGHT on La Tijera Blvd
LEFT on Centinela
Follow Centinela all the way down when it merges into Jefferson
RIGHT on Centinela
This will take you all the way up to SMO

(note: you could take La Cienega all the way to Centinela and turn left, but this is a heavy intersection so you'd be waiting a long time to turn left). I'd also avoid Sepulveda because it doesn't move any faster than the 405.

Check out my directions on Google maps and see if it makes sense for you. Hope this helps.

+1 great tip.

I know of 1 girl from Redondo in my firm that does the La Tijera-Centinela route to bypass the 405 traffic.

She says with surface street traffic heading to the on-ramps & the actual crawl on the freeway it can be close to 1 1/2 hours each way during peak rush hour. She doesn't have kids but if you have a family it's time you don't want to give up.