JerryFF

I need to drive midday on a weekday through the LA area enroute from Santa Barbara to San Diego. I've heard so many horror stories about the 405 that I have been studying the various internal freeway jogs one could theoretically take to avoid much of the 405. But without any knowledge of traffic patterns, I'm wondering what one recommends, other than the obvious monitoring of the road conditions along the route during the drive.

JAldrich73

Jerry, sometimes it is much faster to drive through downtown LA on the 101 Hollywood Frwy to the 5 Santa Ana Frwy than to take the 405. I have done that a couple of times going from OC to Santa Barbara when I used to live in Santa Barbara.

JAldrich73

If you wanted a little more scenic route, but it will get you to San Diego, take the 101 Ventura Frwy to the 134 Ventura Frwy to the 210 Foothill Freeway to the 57 Orange Frwy. That will put you on the 5 Santa Ana Frwy just past Angels Stadium in Anaheim. That is an eastern approach if you didn't want to go through downtown.

dbuckho

Just keep Waze open as you drive.

Have driven to San Diego a few times over the past couple months -- each time leaving late morning/mid-day. Getting out of LA has been the least of my concerns. Almost every trip I have sat on the 5 south of San Clemente for an hour due to an accident or construction.

As for LA, have also driven to Anaheim a few times recently. The best route (based on google and Waze's real-time estimates) has tended to be 405-105-605-91-5. There is construction on the 5 between downtown LA and the OC line that has been causing delays. But then again I am already on this side of the mountain in Santa Monica - not sure what the best path will be coming into LA (though usually mid-day the 405 south from the 101 is ok).

VickiSoCal

Take the train and rent a car in SD. :-)

lhgreengrd1

I just did this drive on Thursday. I took the 101 to the I-5. I hit maybe 10-15 minutes of traffic approaching downtown L.A., and another 5-10 minutes approaching the El Toro Y in OC, but no big deal. I got to the outskirts of L.A. around 11 AM, so I missed both the morning and afternoon heavy commute volume. That's really critical, in my experience. You really want to time it to get through downtown L.A. by 1 PM at the latest, if at all possible.

bzcat

1. 405 south bound after Sepulveda Pass shouldn't be too bad on a weekday mid day. 101-->405-->5 or 101-->405-->91-->5

2. The shortest route is 101 thru Downtown LA but there will be traffic on 101 heading towards Downtown LA to I-5. And I-5 from Downtown LA to OC is under construction... I would not recommend this route.

3. The eastern route should be ok mid day but it will be a pointless long detour by early afternoon. The traffic on this route will be just as bad as the 405 after 2PM or so. 101-->134-->210-->57-->5

hoangb

Mid-day should not be too bad on the 405. Take 101 to 405 to 5. That may indeed be best route if it is indeed midday.

I can assure you that going through downtown as someone suggested you will encounter some traffic in downtown. It coud be between 15, 20 to 30 minutes delay going that route.

I take the 405 all the time. Midday is least traffic, so I would suggest 101 to 405 to 5.

But you would have to leave Santa Barbara by 10 am or 11 am as it would take you aboutt an hour to hour to get to 405.

JerryFF

Thanks for all the good suggestions - including some that had not even occurred to me.