On the way to San Diego on Friday, we experienced probably the worst extended period of traffic I’ve ever been in. It took us a little over 7 hours to get there, and the only time it wasn’t stop and go (mostly stop) was on the relatively short stretch (~17 miles) of the 73 toll road, then it was right back to bumper to bumper. In case you think I’m exaggerating, I’m not.
I don’t know if it was all the people going to SD this weekend for the “Pride Celebration“, the Street Scene, or just random tourism, but the influx of people was insane.
You may be wondering why we were stupid enough to go the 405 to the 5 route, but we figured that since the other way had been built up more lately, it wouldn’t make much difference, and we were leaving early enough to miss “rush hour” in LA. On the way back we wised up and took the old reliable 15 to 10 to 57 to 210 to 134 to 101 route, and made it back in a respectable 3.5 hours.
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at this point, i don’t think there is such a thing as missing rush hour in l.a. at least not on friday. we did the same thing about 15 years ago when trying to reach el cajon on thanksgiving day. 8.5 hours! and at that time, there was no excape that we knew of from the 405. yuk. since then we have taken the 15 almost every time.
Hey, we were in San Diego once during the Pride Celebration one year. We stayed downtown and when we went to the spa it was me Kristen and about fifteen super cut dudes in speedos. I don’t remember being in traffic that long though. That must of sucked.
what time did you leave?
Around 1:30 (both ways)
I was reading some airline advertisement today in the paper about airfare from LAX. One of the destinations was San Diego. I wondered “Who in their right mind would spend $150 round trip to fly from LAX to San Diego?!”
Now I know. And now I realize it is the smart way to go thanks to your blog.
If I had to go there regularly for work (like someone I know), I would definitely fly. It’s not that much more expensive, and it’s way faster.
For a whole family trip though, you pretty much have to drive, since the flying cost would be so much more.
That’s funny; I asked my boss(VP) about the weekend and he said he went to San Diego. I asked about the traffic and he said, “what traffic?”.
Then I remembered when he showed me his plane.
i think we do a pretty good job of “missing” traffic by routinely leaving for sd trips after dinner. late night is still mostly free and clear even on la freeways. just a few months ago, i went to sid’s after work and made it home from orange county in an hour and fifteen minutes at 3am.
Funny you mention that; that’s what I said we should do from now on, after sitting through the first couple hours of traffic. Although then we would have been more tired for Sea World the next day, so it may not have been worth it.
that’s why you sleep til 2pm the day you leave.
You have kids, right?
i’m raising them to party all night like their old man.
Traffic is not good. I wish they would open up the car pool lanes. In a 4 lane freeway 1 extra lane would increase capacity 20%- 25% ??
They do this in other cities at rush hour or some at non-rush hour times.
Car pooling was supposed to intice people to ride together thereby saving resources. However usually no one at work lives near each other and in most neighborhoods people don’t work in the same area/company/town. After it was implemented 20+ years ago it should have become integrated into our society IF it would work but it hasn’t.
Car pooling as a concept in SoCal is dead. I’m sure there are exceptions to the rule.
In New Zealand they have a big truck thing that goes over the bridge going in and out of Auckland and moves the center divider over in the morning, then back in the afternoon, so there are more lanes going in in the AM and more going out in the PM (except weekends I think).
There’s got to be about 5 vanpools that go from Santa Clarita area to my work in Pasadena every day. Don’t know about other places, but I think big companies usually have a lot of carpoolers. There’s no carpool lane on the 210 though.
Nate, you commute to Pasadena…now that sucks.
The New Zealand solution sounds like it would be much better than what we have.
Supposedly a CA law will soon make it okay for hybrids to use the carpool lanes without restrictions.
Everytime I have driven to LAX in the morning during rush hours the carpool lane in the sepulveda pass is empty and the rest of us are averaging 11 mph.
Caltrans did put in an extra southbound lane on the 101 in the valley which does improve traffic flow there for a while.
Seattle, last time I was there - I used to go there 4 times per year for biz, has the far right lane as their HOV ( high occupancy lane). The far right is the highest accident percentage lane and the whole thing from the name and concept is goofy. You have to asap move into the center lane or the fast lane right after you get on the freeway. Then there are a few extra cars in that lane. It was dangerous.
Hey you get your own HOV danger lane but have to deal with people getting on and off the freeway. It seemed unworkable for anyone.
If companies would buy video from me than the employees won’t have to drive as much.
Yep, I did another thing. This one’s a neural network for smoothing out the traffic flow and alleviating freeway congestion. Check it out if you’re interested.
http://geocities.com/carlwenrich/060524/index.htm
Carl