Long Beach commute (public transportation, commute to, good)

[vegaspilgrim]

You're the third person this week who has asked about commuting between Hollywood and somewhere really far south:

//www.city-data.com/forum/los-a...hollywood.html
//www.city-data.com/forum/los-a...ood-where.html

Getting from Long Beach to near downtown LA via the 405/110 freeways, as long and difficult as that is, is actually the easy part. The final stretch of the commute from just a few miles south of downtown to Hollywood is the real killer-- that part alone could easily take an hour or more. The 110 through downtown and the 101 between Hollywood and downtown are some of the most backed up freeways in LA. For many hours during the day traffic literally will be moving at around 2-3 mph. Driving up surface streets that head up towards Hollywood, ie. Western or Vermont is beyond horrible-- "sickening" might be a good word to describe it. And parking around Hollywood is extremely expensive. At least by taking rail transit, you are pretty much guaranteed to get there within a certain range of time.

On the other hand, the problem with rail is the parts of Long Beach you probably want to live in are not going to be walking distance to the Blue line. There is a solution though-- Long Beach's Passport bus can take you from some desirable neighborhood is eastern LB to the Blue line terminus in downtown LB.

I would definitely recommend living in LB (in the nice parts of LB, which is still a good chunk of the city), and make it easy for yourself with your daily commute. Your husband will have to "eat it" with either a 3 modal public transit commute or a 2 hour (or more) each way bumper to bumper drive.

[US-Traveller]

How long would it take to commute from La Canada Flintridge to UCLA Santa Monica, Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, or Cedars Sinai Medical Center?

[KnoxTown]

Originally Posted by US-Traveller

How long would it take to commute from La Canada Flintridge to UCLA Santa Monica, Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, or Cedars Sinai Medical Center?

That wouldn't be fun at all.

[EscapeCalifornia]

Originally Posted by vegaspilgrim

You're the third person this week who has asked about commuting between Hollywood and somewhere really far south:

//www.city-data.com/forum/los-a...hollywood.html
//www.city-data.com/forum/los-a...ood-where.html

Getting from Long Beach to near downtown LA via the 405/110 freeways, as long and difficult as that is, is actually the easy part. The final stretch of the commute from just a few miles south of downtown to Hollywood is the real killer-- that part alone could easily take an hour or more. The 110 through downtown and the 101 between Hollywood and downtown are some of the most backed up freeways in LA. For many hours during the day traffic literally will be moving at around 2-3 mph. Driving up surface streets that head up towards Hollywood, ie. Western or Vermont is beyond horrible-- "sickening" might be a good word to describe it. And parking around Hollywood is extremely expensive. At least by taking rail transit, you are pretty much guaranteed to get there within a certain range of time.

On the other hand, the problem with rail is the parts of Long Beach you probably want to live in are not going to be walking distance to the Blue line. There is a solution though-- Long Beach's Passport bus can take you from some desirable neighborhood is eastern LB to the Blue line terminus in downtown LB.

I would definitely recommend living in LB (in the nice parts of LB, which is still a good chunk of the city), and make it easy for yourself with your daily commute. Your husband will have to "eat it" with either a 3 modal public transit commute or a 2 hour (or more) each way bumper to bumper drive.

No matter how you slice it, its going to be a very time consuming commute. Pick your poison: Spend hours crawling in the car or spend hours walking, waiting for a bus, taking a bus that has to deal with the same traffic you would in your own car, waiting for a train, riding in a train, etc.

[cjmfg888]

Can somebody please tell me what is the best combination of public transportation means (blue line, red line, bus) I should take to travel from the blue line terminal in LB to Westwood (intersection of Wilshire and Veteran) at 6am?

I know I should take the blue line first. How far is the red line from where I get off the blue line. How much time I have to wait for these trains? Is there sufficient public parking at the blue line LB terminal? How much is the parking?

Will the whole journey (including walking and waiting times) take me more than 2 hours ? Will the return route starting at 3:30pm take as much time end-to-end?

I have a feeling the answer to the questions will be scary. But, still, thanks.

[BRinSM]

take the blue line to the 7th st/metro center station and hop on the 534 commuter express bus. also check www.metro.net and see what options they offer. depending on how long the transfer takes, it should be less than 2 hours.

[cjmfg888]

After some research on the internet, I came up with the following route between Long Beach Blue line and Westwood (Wilshire and Veteran):

Take LB Blue line to 7th Street/Metro Center; take the Metro bus # 20 to Wilshire/Veteran.

(Will this take me 2 hours to travel, starting at 6am?)

This seems to be the simplest route for me.

Only two questions left: Is there sufficient parking at the LB Blue Line station? How much is the daily or weekly parking fee?

[ProgShred]

My wife and I had a similar situation and had to move to a centrally located place. Monterey Park worked for us and would be a good location for you. It's close to a lot of freeways. Just hop on the 710 to Long Beach or the 5 to the 101 to Hollywood. There are other areas that will work too, but MP is very clean and safe, if you don't mind a high percentage of Asian people.

[2Easy]

Taking the blue line from Long Beach to Hollywood isn't bad at all as long as you start the trip from Willow Station or North. South of Willow the blue line street running gets irritatingly slow, but North of Willow it's mostly 45-55 mph until just South of downtown LA.

There's a good neighborhood on the east side of the blue line at the Wardlow station. The apartments and smaller houses in that neighborhood should be somewhere around $1,500 and it's walking distance to the station. The trip to Hollywood, including walking and transfer time would be about an hour and fifteen minutes. Then add on however long it takes to get from the Hollywood station to your husband's school.

[moving out of the midwest]

Originally Posted by ProgShred

My wife and I had a similar situation and had to move to a centrally located place. Monterey Park worked for us and would be a good location for you. It's close to a lot of freeways. Just hop on the 710 to Long Beach or the 5 to the 101 to Hollywood. There are other areas that will work too, but MP is very clean and safe, if you don't mind a high percentage of Asian people.

Haha...definitely don't mind a high percentage of Asian's considering my husband is Chinese.