Driving in Los Angeles

Residents of Los Angeles County spend an estimated 4 days of each year stuck in traffic. However, since there is no real effective alternative for getting around, driving, and dealing with traffic, for the vast majority of trips, traffic is an inescapable part of the Los Angeles lifestyle, and something visitors will not be able to avoid. It is actually very easy to drive around Los Angeles for about six hours every day - from around 11 PM to 5 AM. Driving times in these morning hours can easily be less than a third of what they are during peak hours. Don't think for a second that CalTrans hasn't figured this out too.

A lot of construction is scheduled during these off peak times, be ready to plan alternative routes. Anyone planning on visiting by car may wish to seriously consider scheduling the trip so as to arrive or depart in the early morning - this can prevent a great deal of frustration. This is also an excellent time of day to find your way around, memorize your traffic routes, and explore. No one should drive around Los Angeles without a Thomas Guide. If you don't want to purchase a full Thomas Guide (about $20-$30 at bookstores), you can purchase Rand McNally maps which incorporate the Thomas Guide at most gas stations, supermarkets, and convenience stores (Costco and Wal-Mart usually have the cheapest prices). The maps cover a given geographical area and cost about $4-$6. Use of an online mapping tool, such as Mapquest, is also recommended. As a general rule, time estimates given by Mapquest should be at least doubled during rush hours.

Traffic Reports

You can get traffic reports 24 hours a day from several radio stations. Unfortunately, there is no longer a 24 hour all news station in Los Angeles. Radio stations don't play traffic reports during sports events or special news events.
 • KFWB 980 AM has traffic reports on the ones (:01, :11, :21, :31, :41, and :51) when they aren't playing Dodger games or running Larry King Live. KNX 1070 AM has traffic reports four to six times each hour when they aren't running 60 Minutes or 60 Minutes II.
 • KFI 640 AM and KABC 790 AM run traffic reports four times an hour, usually during commercial breaks of their talk shows. The radio station web sites have links to graphics showing traffic speeds and the accident logs of the highway patrol.

Freeways versus surface streets
While driving around LA you have the option of taking freeways or surface streets. Some locals rely on surface streets to avoid rush hour traffic on the freeways. For example, many people driving to the San Fernando Valley during rush hour will opt to take Sepulveda Blvd, which runs parallel to the 405 Freeway, since the 405 often takes longer at this time of day.

The effectiveness of such strategies is debatable, and it may be difficult for inexperienced drivers to accurately guess which way will be faster. Outside of rush hour, the freeways will almost always be faster for longer trips around LA.

One particularly annoying part of freeways in Los Angeles County is finding an onramp. The onramps are marked with signs marked "Freeway Entrance" but these can be frustratingly difficult to find.

Caltrans has installed real-time traffic speed sensors on most freeways in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The information is available on a number of websites, such as: http://www.sigalert.com/ or http://traffic.tann.net/

Freeways
Each freeway is identified by a number, and usually one or two names. When referring to a freeway by its number, one usually says "the 405 freeway" or "the 101 freeway", or just "the 101".
The names usually identify where the freeway goes. But since they go in two different directions, the freeway may have two names. For example, the 110 runs from Pasadena in the north to the LA harbor in the south, and is therefore called both the Pasadena Freeway and the Harbor Freeway. On the other hand, the 405 is known as the San Diego Freeway despite the fact that it doesn't go to San Diego. The Hollywood Freeway is unusual in that it consists of both the 101 Freeway in the south, and the 170 Freeway in the north.

 • 1 - Pacific Coast Highway: Not really a freeway per se. But convenient for the beach towns as it sticks to the coast most of the way through the county. Watch out though, it is mostly a highway riddled with signals in the South Bay area.
 • 2 - Glendale Freeway: This freeway connects the 210 in La Crescenta/La Ca'da to the 134 and 5 freeways before petering out in Silver Lake/Echo Park. Convenient for getting to the Angeles National Forest and Dodger's Stadium.
 • 5 - Golden State Freeway/Santa Ana Freeway: The main north/south freeway through central LA. It passes through downtown LA and heads north through the east end of the San Fernando Valley. Continuing north it is the fastest route to San Francisco. Heading south it will take you to Anaheim, through Orange County, to San Diego and the Mexican border.
 • 10 - Santa Monica Freeway/San Bernadino Freeway: The main east/west freeway. It passes by downtown LA and is the main route between LA and Santa Monica. Going east, it is, along with the 60, the main escape from LA to Riverside County, Palm Springs, and eventually Phoenix and the rest of the country.
 • 14 - Antelope Valley Freeway: This is a freeway starting from the 5 in the south and moves its way to Palmdale and Lancaster (in Northern Los Angeles County).
 • 57 - Orange Freeway: Most of this freeway is in Orange County. But it does connect the 210 in La Verne to the 71, 10 and 60 freeways before heading out of the county to the South (straight on to Anaheim and Disneyland). Convenient if you are in the East of the county for Raging Waters, Disneyland or Cal Poly Pomona.
 • 60 - Pomona Freeway: Runs parallel to the 10 from downtown to beyond Riverside, after which it merges again with the 10.
 • 71 - Corona Freeway: Starts at the 10/57/71 interchange in Pomona in the west and ends at the 91 in Corona. Convenient for getting from Los Angeles County out to Corona and even San Diego (using the 15).
 • 91 - Artesia Freeway: An east/west freeway that connects the 110, 5, 605 and 57 freeways. Be careful about it being a 'beach freeway'. It ends long before it ever gets to a beach, much smarter to take other freeway routes to the beaches. When you reach the end of the elevated freeway, the road becomes a highway until it hits the 1. Although you may use it to get to either Manhattan or Hermosa beaches, you will wait at many traffic signals.
 • 101 - Hollywood Freeway/Ventura Freeway: Runs northwest from downtown LA, past Hollywood, and into the San Fernando Valley, where it turns abruptly west and becomes the Ventura Freeway. The 170 continues northwest as the Hollywood Freeway.
 • 105 - Glenn Anderson Freeway: An east/west route, a few miles south of the 10. Also known as the Century Freeway. Important because it takes you straight to the LA airport. On the east end, terminates at the 605.
 • 110 - Pasadena Freeway/Harbor Freeway: Runs from Pasadena in the north to the LA harbor area in the south. Unusual in that the southern part of the 110 is an Interstate, while the northern part is a state highway. Probably this is because the northern part, the Pasadena Freeway, would never pass code as an Interstate. Designed in the 1930s, when it was assumed cars would be traveling maybe 35 miles per hour, the Pasadena Freeway is noted for its extremely short offramps, while its onramps give you just a few car lengths to accelerate from a complete stop before merging with oncoming traffic. It also sports a number of winding curves that can make it feel a bit like a racetrack, making it a very fun ride around 3AM, when you have the highway to yourself.
 • 134 - Ventura Freeway: Connects the 210 in Pasadena to the 101 in Burbank. Cuts right through Glendale and Eagle Rock along the way. Convenient for getting to Griffith Park, Disney studios and most of Glendale.
 • 405 - San Diego Freeway: The main north/south freeway for West LA. It is the road you take to the Los Angeles airport. The 405 runs north through the San Fernando Valley. It runs south from the airport towards Long Beach, and turns east until merging with the 5 in Orange County.
 • 605 - San Gabriel River Freeway: A north/south alternative in east LA county, running from near Long Beach north up to 210, intersecting the 5 and the major east/west freeways.
 • 710 - Long Beach Freeway: A north/south artery from East LA to Long Beach. This freeway is almost always full of trucks heading in and out of the harbor, so be careful near them..