TRAFFIC HELP - San Fernando to Bellflower on a FRIDAY / help me beat the traffic!!! (Los Angeles: moving, land)

[JP001]

What is the best route from the San Fernando (118 freeway) area down to Bellflower? On a Friday around 5 or 6pm (probably the worst time, right? )

Should I take the 405 south? Stay away from it? 710? What to do??? This is an hour trip with no traffic. How long could it possibly take on a Friday night in traffic?

[Charles]

Maybe the 5 to the 10 to the 710 to the 91.
The 5 looks really bad south of downtown, so does the 210 east

This is an ideal situation for a GPS with traffic (though my Garmin with Navteq routes me onto equally congested surface city streets which Navteq doesn't realize are sometimes worse than the freeways)

Check out Google Maps Traffic real time and see what it would be like taking surface streets from Pasadena to the 710.....if the streets aren't that bad, that might be a good way.


Click on this, go to traffic, and change (if necessary) to "Traffic at Time and Day.

CA-118 W to Bellflower, CA - Google Maps

Also play around with this:

Traffic Predict.com - Los Angeles Traffic Map - Friday 5 pm

[JohnG72]

I've had to do this drive several times at that time of day, from the Valley to Huntington Beach.

In general the quickest route is the 5 south to the 10 east to the 710 south to the 105 east.

But not always. If you have a iphone, gps or similiar, make sure you update traffic. The biggest traffic jams are going to be on the 134 east heading into the 5. You can get around that by taking Forrest Lawn Drive into Griffith Park. Depending on traffic, re-enter the 5 south of Colorado and stay in the farthest right land on the 5 Fwy including using the off ramps that re-enter the freeway. People on the 5 south are super retarded and the "slow" lane is almost always the fastest there, even in light traffic. There is also a huge jam up on the 710 south from the 60 down to about the 105. There is no reasonable alternative.

Should take around an hour. You might want to plan on an hour and a half just to be safe.

[BRinSM]

years back i had to commute from anaheim to sylmar, so i've made this commute many, many times (ouch!). your best bet is to take the 210 towards pasadena, then hop on the 2 south. this will help you avoid the traffic on the 5 through the valley and in the griffith park area, which is really slow. the 210 and 2 will have zero congestion, at least until you are about to merge back on to the 5. unfortunatley, you will have to go through downtown, which is no fun. however, you'll have some options once you get south of the 10/60. you can try the 710 to the 91 as mentioned, but the 710 is no picnic. however, there are not many freeways (if any) slower than the 5 in all of LA, so it may be worth it especially if you need to get to the western portion of bellflower. this is where have a smart phone with google maps would be extremely helpful.

[UB50]

Originally Posted by JohnG72

Should take around an hour. You might want to plan on an hour and a half just to be safe.

No way. If it takes an hour WITHOUT traffic, there is no way it will take an hour WITH traffic.

I'm guessing but based on trips I've taken south on I-5 on Fridays, three hours is closer to it.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by BRinSM

this is where have a smart phone with google maps would be extremely helpful.

Can you see street traffic with it? For example, if the 405 in West LA is jammed can you see if Sepulveda is moving (like you can using a web browser on google maps traffic)?

[JohnG72]

I suppose it depends on where in the Valley one is leaving from, but Van Nuys where I leave from to Bellflower is around a 35 minute drive in non traffic. And it doesn't take 3 hours to go from Van Nuys to Bellflower on a Friday afternoon. Van Nuys to PCH/Goldenwest in HB takes me between 1 hour 40 minutes and around 2 hours at that time.

According to my gps, Van Nuys to Bellflower is 33.5 miles and a 1 hour 25 minute drive with what appears to be very heavy traffic this afternoon.

[JohnG72]

Originally Posted by Charles

Can you see street traffic with it? For example, if the 405 in West LA is jammed can you see if Sepulveda is moving (like you can using a web browser on google maps traffic)?

You can on the iphone.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by JohnG72

You can on the iphone.

That must be nice. I have a Garmin 265WT which uses Navteq and I only get highway traffic. The problem is, Navteq "assumes" surface streets are moving when it routes me off the freeway. Often the streets are just as bad.

[KnoxTown]

I'd probably do...

210-2-5-710