Southern California Traffic and how to alleviate it
Has this been you lately?
I’ve been driving Southern California Freeways for almost 20 years. Being an independent musician, I’ve traveled to thousands of Gigs, Shows, Weddings, Funerals, Concerts….you name it. Other than me performing at them,the only other constant is the anxiety of traffic at any given time when trying to get to my event.
For those of you who travel the same route (or rather have the same destination), you know what you’re probably going to get within a 15 minute cushion, unless, of course, there’s an accident, the President comes to town, or perhaps unscheduled road work. Other than that, you have that “window”.
The old saying used to be that everything was about “20 minutes” away, no matter where you were going in LA. That is NOT the case today. The good thing is that we Urban Warriors have been given tools to navigate and avoid. No more is the Thomas Guide a
A Thomas Guide of Yore
staple of our commute. Now we have modern GPS, a gazillion map apps and even more sophisticated traffic avoidance apps to suggest, steer, and help keep our blood pressure under wraps. I also note that having streaming audio capabilities is a fabulous way to occupy your time in the car, on your way to work.
Living in Orange County, I frequently have to navigate my way to the Burbank or North Hollywood Area for auditions, shoots, rehearsals, etc. Much of my work-related things are in the Valley. That, for me, is approximately 55 miles one way. Under “normal” circumstances, that would take about an hour. But oh nooooooo….not when you live in So Cal.
James in-house calculation
I have a little method, a rough-guide that I use when I know I have to travel a distance to get somewhere on time. Life happens. Theoretically, we’d like to leave about 2 hours before the appointment and get there with about 30 minutes to spare…gotta’ park in LA after all…that is another blog posting all together BTW.
THE CALCULATION
1. Look at the time of day you have to travel:
SOUTH TO NORTH:
If you travel from South to North then you want to avoid 7:30AM to 9AM and depending how far South you live in OC, avoid driving North from 4:00PM to 7:00PM.
James’ Calculates possible traffic patterns based on which Freeway Direction at which time of day.
NORTH TO SOUTH:
If you are North of Downtown Los Angeles…
Avoid driving between 3:00PM and 7:30PM. There are NO freeways (5S, 710S, 605S, 405S) that will save you. Each of those freeways, especially the ones going anywhere near Downtown Los Angeles are an absolute NO NO. Better to stop, have dinner and wait. Your time will be better served. Trust me.
LAX Area Traffic
The Los Angeles International Airport always seems to cause traffic at the 405 Freeway, almost any time of day. If you have to go from Orange County North to get that special ticket price you thought was worth it. I hope it wasn’t during the NO Drive times I posted above. If you did, plan on leaving an additional hour earlier. There are two ways to get to LAX from OC, the most direct route is the 405 North. The other being 405 North to 605N, 710N or 110N to the 105 West. This is a risky proposition (I’ve done it a few times in desperation) as you multiply the risk of traffic due to the sheer additional mileage and additional freeways that you could have traffic on. LAX in the Morning is rough. Most air commuters fly the morning flights to Phoenix, San Francisco and Las Vegas. You will experience the most traffic at or around LAX at this time in either direction. Maybe you should have considered going out of SNA (John Wayne) or even Long Beach. They are always worth a look. Paying an additional 25-30 bucks a ticket is well-worth the price to avoid heading into LAX at morning times.
LAX in the afternoon is no picnic either. You just had a long flight, you’ve landed at 3:00PM and you are getting a rental car to head South (or North)…good luck with that. You’re assured gridlock from the moment you hit the 405. Go have dinner first. Make some calls, and kill some time. If you have far to go, you’ll still get there in about the same time even if you do this but you will be in a far better mood when you arrive.
Just Park and wait if you are stuck in accident traffic on the 405.
THE 405 PARKING LOT
Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen…there is one. The 405 is one of the most recognized and traveled freeways in the United States. the Four-Oh-Five, as we Californians call it is the North South Coastal-Side Artery between the San Fernando Valley and South Orange County. The annual daily traffic can be as high as 374,000 and you will suffer the consequences of being on it if you don’t follow my suggestions above.
There are many instances that accidents during peak hours have caused commuters who were stranded on the freeway to park and get out of their cars (one should NOT do this) while they wait for the traffic to move again, sometimes taking hours. This freeway has earned its reputation. The good thing is that there are many safe places to get off of this freeway and have a bite to eat.
AVOIDING TRAFFIC WHEN YOU HAVE TO DRIVE DURING PEAK HOURS
Yes, I know, I have done it and you will too. You have to get to an appointment and it will take you though one of the most complex freeway mazes in the United States to get there. Knowing your major freeways will make you a more skilled and savvy driver.
Learn the major freeways in Southern California.
Learn them like you know the palm of your hand. Your palm resembles the Southern California Freeway System…also a colander of cooked spaghetti as one of my former Voice Teachers used to call it. Ok. so you just memorized the Freeways…now what? Well listen up children, I have some suggestions that will get you there.
MAP YOUR ROUTE
Ah yes! If you don’t know where you are going, the best thing to do is to see it on a map first. Go to Googlemaps.com and type in the address. See where the heck you are heading, in relationship to where you are. There is nothing like seeing it visually, whether you are one of those “types” or not. Just do it. Take it to the next level…type in your home address and see how long it says you will need to get there. That will give you a rough estimate (always on the short side, mind you) and base from which to work from. The third step in this part would be to print the route that’s preferred by Google. I don’t do this because I find it’s a waste of paper and printer ink. I might just print the map part itself in Black and White. Why? Because there’s more…
HAVE COMPUTER ACCESS JUST BEFORE YOU LEAVE?
Then use Sigalert.com This handy app just released a phone app (I’ll discuss that in a bit). Go on to Sigalert.com and it will show you current traffic conditions with average speed on a freeway map. Highly useful if you’re about to head out the door. It might save you some time.
SMART PHONE TRAFFIC APPLICATIONS
If you are new to Los Angeles or Southern California, you probably should get a smart phone. These devices have the best tools to help you get to your destination. They are GPS equipped and you just gained a lot of help! Use it. If you have a Droid or an iPhone, I suggest the following applications for immediate download and personalization. This means download it now, install, and get familiarized PRIOR to driving. For goodness sake, don’t do this while you are driving unless you want to be told you are number one numerous times on the freeway by other drivers…not to mention it’s darn right dangerous and illegal. Need more encouragement?
SUGGESTED GPS AND TRAFFIC APPLICATIONS FOR YOUR SMARTPHONE:
1. WAZE This is my number one recommendation. GPS-based navigational app Waze does something other apps can’t…calculate your estimated arrival time based on current traffic conditions received by other Waze users reports and data collected from real-time drivers.
Waze is now owned by Google.
Recently bought out by Google in June 2013 for an estimated 1.03 Billion US Dollars, it is poised to become one of the biggest go-to drive-time apps on the market. This app has saved me numerous times, suggesting alternate routes, sometimes saving me several minutes on a drive. It’s the ultimate in communal driving. It also can find you the best gas prices posted in your immediate area.
Waze has been featured on Southern California Traffic Reports
2. Google Maps has a phone app that will give you aural turn by turn directions. It is not intuitive but it has a standard algorithm that calculates an adjusted arrival time due to average traffic conditions.
3. Sigalert.com for Google Play and Droid Users and Here for iPod and iPhone Users. With over 600K downloads for iPhone, it’s a mover in the Freeway App battle. Here’s a little article about it.
EASE THE PAIN
Ok, so I mentioned that driving and using apps to get you to your destination are important. It’s also important to stay calm while you are on the road. I personally like to practice my singing while I drive. Not only do I get a nice vocal workout in but my fellow commuters get a kick out me flapping my lips while I warm up. Oh, so you are not a professional singer? That doesn’t stop many I’ve seen on the road. I’ve seen professional drummers, dancers, heavy metal air guitars. On a non musical front, I’ve seen make up
Freeways are susceptible to immediate closures due to accidents.
applications, breakfast eating, shaving with an electric razor, reading a book, newspaper, smoking, using a phone handset, gawking out the window, leering, brushing hair, nose picking, ear wax harvesting, eyebrow plucking, driver’s left foot out the side window and a few other things which I shan’t mention here.
Ah, back to easing the pain…yes, I suggest iHeart Radio, Pandora or a great iPod playlist. Get the apps and then program a special play list based on your general moods. Maybe a bit of Classical or Jazz to start the morning and some 70’s Rock for the ride home. Just a suggestion.
not again!
MY FINAL SUGGESTION TO CAL TRANS
My final observation I’d like to share with you is this…
Have you ever noticed that as you approach a construction area (with the Orange Cones merging you into fewer lanes) that everyone speeds up as opposed to the suggested slowing down? As if that person who just flew by you is going to get to their destination any faster than you? Did that one car length actually make the difference of you being tardy, Mr. Rude? If we were all walking in a line at a slow pace at the grocery checkout counter and someone did that very thing to you by blatantly shoe-horning his way just in front of you because there was the space of a small child, would that be acceptable? Or perhaps Cal Trans should just line every single freeway with these orange cones wherever traffic has historically been…post those LED signs saying delays ahead, yada yada…then not merge anything. Would traffic move faster because of the suggestion of more traffic, even though there wouldn’t be? Hmmmmm…..
A simple solution to traffic congestion in Southern California?
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The Amazing Waiters