Pasadena to Woodland Hills Commute (Los Angeles, Glendale: apartment complex, rental, townhomes)

[travelgirl44]

Hello,

I will be starting a new job in Woodland Hills and I would love to live in Pasadena. My tentative work schedule is the following. Does anyone have any insight or input regarding this commute (both freeways and surface st or a combo of both...)?

M-F

3 days/ week 7:30am-5:30 or 6pm
1 day/ week 12pm-1opm


Thanks!

[BRinSM]

Pasadena is nice and all, but that's a pretty awful commute.

[JeffSanDimas]

You will hate your life, I'm serious that's a miserable commute. I'm from the Eastern part of LA county and I live close to Woodland Hills now, and when I drive home it takes a long time even during off hours. LA county is expansive.

Live in one of the nicer areas of the valley. Which means either along the southern rim like WH, Sherman Oaks etc, or places like Chatsworth or Granada Hills on the NW. Or, you can live where I'm at now, the Conejo Valley in Ventura County which is beautiful and an easy commute. I drive to Northridge during Rush hour and it takes about 30minutes, WH would be About the same.

[Youngcorporate]

Why don't you live in Woodland Hills?
It's a burgeoning neighborhood that will only get better. I suggest you keep your options open and look into Woodland Hills.

[munchitup]

I agree to look into Woodland Hills around Ventura Blvd or Sherman Oaks around Ventura Blvd. Obviously they don't have the historic charm or walkability of Pasadena but they offer a pretty close version of it.

Not sure if it is your thing but I think those areas are a little more "cut loose" because they are in LA proper, it seems like Pasadena - despite being a lot more rough around the edges in places than its reputation would indicate - is more buttoned-up especially in the downtown areas. You won't find many bars or liquor stores outside of Old Town. Of course, to many this is a positive. I just wish downtown Pasadena wasn't quite so gentrified.

If you were going to do Pasadena - Woodland Hills, you would definitely just do 210-134-101. This requires no actual exiting from freeways, those three are essentially the same highway with numerical changes in Pasadena (210-134) and Burbank (134-101). Speaking of, Burbank might be a good option too, slightly closer to Woodland Hills and has a downtown that is like a poor-man's Pasadena (no diss on Burbank, I think it is great but not quite the size or quality of downtown Pas.) Then you wouldn't have to take the 134 through downtown Glendale, which can get pretty backed up for your 7:30 shifts. I think your off-shift would be 45 minutes max from Pasadena most days (but in LA always expect to have a few brutal commutes tossed in there.)

[JeffSanDimas]

Originally Posted by Youngcorporate

Why don't you live in Woodland Hills?
It's a burgeoning neighborhood that will only get better. I suggest you keep your options open and look into Woodland Hills.

Woodland Hills is very nice from what I've seen, and I admit that I haven't spent too much time there but it seems to me that the majority of housing there isn't apartments but nice single family homes and townhomes, and to be quite frank that's probably contributed to why it's stayed so pristine over the years compared to other parts of the Valley - family oriented, owner occupied areas are usually much nicer than places with lots of apartments and renters. I may be wrong but the only apartment complex I know of over there is by the mall, and that is barely Woodland Hills are borders Canoga Park which is the opposite of Woodland Hills. I would imagine most rental apartments in Woodland Hills would be conversions of some sort in a private home, or a guest house.


For a reasonable commute and a safe and nice area, the OP could look directly to the north past Canoga Park in Chatsworth (again, there are a few apartments in here but the majority of places would likely be conversions) or to the east in places like Sherman Oaks, Encino, Studio City which are nice and safe and have lots of apartments. There is some stuff to do in these areas and more places are popping up now that the valley is "cool" but there is a bunch of stuff a quick drive away in Noho where you could also catch the subway down into Hollywood proper if that's your thing.

[JeffSanDimas]

With Los Angeles commutes you want to be as conservative and careful as possible and budget for bad traffic scenarios because they will happen.

You want to find a place that meets your needs for a neighborhood (safety, security, demographics etc.) that also has these factors.

Is as close to your work as is plausible.

Is as straight of a ride as possible (the more you have to get on and off freeways the longer your commute becomes because of things like congestion at the on ramp, accidents at the on ramp etc)

That has as many plausible alternate routes as possible (if you live 10 minutes from work but there is only one reasonable route and you get stuck behind an accident you're screwed)

Can be done in a way that avoids major streets (Sunset, Santa Monica, Burbank, Ventura, Hollywood, Fairfax, Crenshaw, La Brea etc.) and major intersections (where two major streets cross). There is no way to fully avoid these of course, but it's always good to know side streets. Even if the commute time difference is negligible, a side street commute is infinitely less stressful because of less cars on the road, which means less stupid drivers, which means less honking/bird flipping/cursing and thus less stress.

Seriously though, Pasadena to Woodland Hills is the kind of commute that people avoid at all costs (to the point of turning down a position) and only do if they must. You will wind up breaking your lease or quitting your job after doing it for a bit.

You want to be in the western half of the San Fernando Valley, or the Conejo Valley (though this is probably less appealing if you're single and like exciting things). You want a straight shot, easy commute either directly south into WH from somewhere like Chatsworth or even Northridge, or a straight drive west into WH from Encino, Sherman Oaks, Studio City or maybe Valley Village if you can find something significantly less expensive than the aforementioned neighborhoods.

Pro tip: make sure the place you rent is actually in the neighborhood you want. Many places will advertise their apartments in Sherman Oaks and actually be in Van Nuys which is not a nice place at all, and completely different than Sherman Oaks even though they are right next to each other.


Any places out of this range will negatively affect your QOL with the commute, and I'm not saying that because there is something I don't like about Pasadena. I love Pasadena but it's literallt "the other side of town".