OK. Noted. Thank you. Would likely be heading out of Orange ~7:30 or 8pm

At that time it should be lighter traffic, though for us, lighter means doubling your speed from 15 to 30 mph on freeway :p. Once you get on the 105 freeway it should be much better ride. Still you're looking at a minimum 50 minute drive from Orange County.

You should be fine at that point. If you are coming from the City of Orange (and not just the "greater Orange County" area), you have a few options in getting to LAX depending on traffic.

If you are near the "Crush" which is where the 22/57/5 freeways meet, you can consider taking 22 to the 405 or the 5 to the 91. If either those encounter difficulty along the way, you have the options of going north on the 605, 710 or 110 to the 105 and you would still be making forward progress.

A great website if you have internet access before you leave is: www.sigalert.com

It shows the freeway map with speeds and incidents to help you plan your route.

BTW - the Hilton (I think it's now a DB if we are talking about the same place) in Carson is a dump. The only redeeming thing is that it's on the other side of the freeway from an IKEA. But, the overall area/neighborhood is not too nice.

Good luck!

Good stuff. Thank you.

As to where I'm coming from, not too far from the Doubletree on near Chapman Ave. (?) and I5

In the past I've usually done CA-22 to I-405.

I make the commute from the LGB area to past LAX to the ocean. I work 430AM to 2PM. At 6AM in the Carson area, the 405 freeway is already packed. (it only moves 30-40 mph even at 6AM--at 415AM, full speed 99% of the time). I would estimate 45 min drive from Carson to LAX at approx 730AM. I usually avoid driving to LAX at that time 7-10AM, if possible.

What about the Doubletree or HGI in El Segundo? Maybe it prices out too high. I have stayed in the LAX Hilton & it's OK if you don't get one of the tiny corner rooms that given to people not in the "know" or to opaque online bidders.

Metro Blue Line Advice - Downtown LA to LGB
 

I will be in downtown L.A. next weekend, and on Saturday I'll need to go to Long Beach (downtown area). Will not have a car, so am considering what appears to be the easiest route - the Metro Blue Line. I will leave L.A. for Long Beach in the early afternoon, and return sometime early evening.

Insofar as the route travels through some scary parts of L.A., is this trip presumed to be reasonably safe? Any advice from regular riders?

Are there any other transit alternatives? If perhaps the return journey in the early evening is questionable, I presume I could do a Super Shuttle to LAX, and another one to downtown. Much more costly and cumbersome, unless anyone has any other ideas.

Any comments and suggestions will be deeply appreciated.

Yes. The line is patrolled by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

While some of the MTA's bus routes through bad neighborhoods can be scary, the Metro lines are generally well patrolled by Sheriffs and have video monitoring and emergency calls for all stations. My college freshman niece regularly rides the blue line at late night *by herself* end to end. Her comment: "I had way more problems in Italian train stations..."

I realize I'm just echoing others here, but you shouldn't worry about it at all. The people who have to worry are those dumb souls who drive over the tracks and get hit on rare occasion. The train itself is safe. I live in LGB and have taken it several times to go downtown without feeling unsafe once. I only wish I worked downtown so I could ride it everyday. Instead, I sit on the 405 driving all the way up to Westwood. Ugh.

Very interesting. I would not have thought you could find free street parking near Staples. We are going this weekend, so I will see if it works for us ^

Ummm...

That's TWO subways, since you'd have to change from the purple line (Wilshire/Western) to the Blue line to get to Staples.

If I were looking for transit routing, I'd go to www.metro.net....

(...and most of their fastest routes seem to be one or two bus routes at first glance...)

True 'cause the Staples Center is at the Pico Street Station, which is a blue line stop.

But, couldn't one just walk from the red/purple line stop at 7th Street Metro Center (where one would transfer from the red or purple to the blue) to the Staples Center? I didn't think it was that far of a walk. According to metro.net, it's just ~0.15 miles.

Well, metro's pulling your leg on their mileage estimate...

The nearest 7th street metro station exit is 7th and Figueroa

The Northeast corner of Staples center is 11th and Figueroa

Mapquest calls it 0.5 miles, Delome calls it 0.6 miles.
YMMV, but four LA blocks sure isn't 0.15 miles in my estimation.

(and the Original Pantry is at 9th and Figueroa)

be sure to have an open mind as to what "near" means, especially if you're going in the evening.

LAX to Pasadena and back on a Friday afternoon?
 

I'm buying something on Ebay from someone in Pasadena. I want to pick it up during a 7.5 hr layover at LAX (on a Friday afternoon). What's the realistic time to get from LAX to Pasadena and back on a Friday? We should arrive 3p, get the car (at the Radisson) by 330-345. Anyway we can get to Pasadena by 5?

If you get the car by 3:30, you should be able to get to Pasadena by 5 or 5:15. Take the 105 to the 110 and come straight up--you'll be in HOV lanes much of the way. (You may know all this already.)

If you're heading back for a 10:30pm flight, you should be able to have a decent dinner and have no trouble getting back (at 9:00 or so, it's 26 minutes from where I live in Pasadena to LAX, assuming no traffic abnormalities and doing 75-80 in the HOV lanes).

Fuhgeddaboutit.

30 mins for baggage. 30 mins to get the shuttle to the Radisson. 30 mins to rent the car. Now it is maybe 5 PM. 2 hours more to get to Pasadena. But you ought to be able to do it within 7.5 hrs if your seller will agree to meet you later in the evening.

Realistically you are not going to get to the Radisson until at least 4:15-4:30 w/out luggage, or 4:45-5:00 with luggage. Figure 1:15-1:30 to get to Pasadena from LAX at that time of day.

So you get there in the 6:30-7:00 range, pick up your item, have a nice dinner in Old Town and then get back to the LAX area around 9:00 when traffic is light. Hopefully you are not connecting international. It's a lot of driving but doable, and possibly even enjoyable. All bets are off if you are flying out international.

Re-think that Plan
 

I'm an LA native, but I live in San Diego County now. I have traveled enough in LA recently to think that you are not likely to be able to leave LAX by rental at 3:30pm on a Friday and arrive in Pasadena by 5:00pm. Might be possible with luck for someone who knew all of the alternative routes around freeway jams. Still possible for you with luck depending on route and your particular destination in Pasadena. This is one route: Century fwy west from LAX to the 710 fwy north, which unfortunately ends somewhere south of Pasadena. The 110 freeway goes straight into downtown Pasadena from downtown LA, but downtown and the 110 will be a parking lot at that time.

This is the best online LA traffic report. You might see what the freeway looks like at 5pm:

traffic.tann.net/lartraffic/

Alternatively, you could take direct bus and/or a bus and trolly combination from LAX to union station in downtown

Be sure and sit in the A seat and eyeball the traffic on the 105 and 405 freeways while on the approach.

Just where in Pasadena, California, do you need to be? Is it close enough to the gold line to make taking public transportation feasible? Having a car will probably make the trip back to LAX quicker. But, at that time of the day, public transportation to Pasadena might be a better option.

The Union Station Flyaway to the Gold Line could be an option if you are meeting the person (or can convince them to meet you) near a Gold Line stop. Travel time for that route (according to MTA.net) is 60-90 minutes. Of course, if you need to stray too far from the Gold Line any benefit is lost.

Moot point now as I lost the auction (hot last minute bidding). We'll just stay in El Segundo/Manhattan Beach now (have to burn up McCormick's coupons courtesy of AS).

BTW, what about:

1) the Radisson shuttle that will take so long

2) int' departures? We're off on UA to SYD (on the UA LAX-AKL mistake fare)

No bags as we've learnt that AS's luggage handling at LAX T3 is molasses-slow.

Nothing particular to the Radisson Shuttle. The hotel shuttles generally run 20-30 minutes, and it takes about that long for one to make the loop around the arrivals level at LAX.

Since you won't have any bags, you will have a much quicker time on your flight departing LAX. Are you flying out of TBIT or Terminal 8? I forgot how UA does their int'l flights. Either way, plan on getting to the terminal 2 hrs ahead of flight time.

I'm pretty sure that UA international is all out of terminal 7 (maybe there are some out of terminal 6). And, as YVR Cockroach is * Gold, they'll get to use the elite check-in area on the east side of terminal 6. Two hours would be safe, but y'all can cut it closer than that.

I would recommend the Flyer to Union station and train to Pasadena. The traffic from downtown (where HOV ends) to Pasadena is going to be a bear that time of night and I just don't think there would be enough time. You could board the flyer much more quickly than you could get your rental car, and the bus goes nonstop to Union station, from which you can take a train to Pasadena.

LAX to Agoura Hills, CA ?
 

are there any options except Super shuttle ( Blue or the Red one ) to go to Agoura Hills which is the far west San Fernando valley on the 101 freeway,

are there any valley only shuttles or ones that go to Oxnard - Ventura that could drop me off

thanks for the info......Rally

Prime time or Super Shuttle is approx $45

I don't think public transportation is an option. The farthest the "rail" system extends is the Warner Center in Canoga Park (it's actually the Bus Rapid Transit--fake light rail--Orange Line). That's still 14 miles from Agoura Hills.

I don't know if any LACMTA or other buses serve that area. A review on the http://www.mta.net trip planner didn't seem to turn anything up. Maybe there are other options that I don't know about (maybe Thousand Oaks Transit, although I couldn't get any of their routes to show via the Google Transit interface).

You may be stuck with Super Shuttle et al...

Roadrunner appears to specialize in the Valley and Ventura/Santa Barbara counties, but I would guess their rates are comparable to Super Shuttle/Prime Time. Check the shuttle listings here (towards the bottom).

thanks for the info, I forgot about Roadrunner,

the $40 or so is not my real concern , its just if some provider was only doing that area it might be quicker

Public Transportation was really not on the list because of the time it would take ,

Rally

Really, this case falls back on the old adage - "When in L.A. - rent a car!"

Business Trip to SNA John Wayne
 

Am haviing to make short business trip to client with offices at SNA John Wayne Airport.

Coming from IAD and wondering about best connections. Brief scan of Expedia shows connecting through DEN or PHX or other intermediate taking 7 or 8 hours overall flight time. Appreciate any suggestions.

Would it be just as comfortable to fly to SAN and drive up, or fly nonstop to LAX and ground to SNA?

What ground services are there from LAX if not wanting to rent a car to drive through most of metro LA?

Thanks.

No, definitely not. The freeway traffic could add hours to your driving time from either SAN or LAX.

SNA is a much smaller airport than the others and easier to navigate -- there's no shuttle bus to rental cars, you simply walk across the street.

IMO, any time savings you will get by flying direct will be wasted by the traffic.

No question about it - best thing is to fly right into SNA. Traffic on the I-405 from either LAX or SAN can be horrible. Don't do it! I remember one trip from LAX to SNA took me over 2 hours on the 405 freeway - all for a distance of about 30 miles.

Completely agree! Traffic in either direction is brutal at most hours. Also flying out of PHX to SNA would probably be on a regional jet, it has to arrive in PHX before it can head back out. If it gets hung up, you have no other options.

Ok maybe it's me but I think it's funny that all those who are warning about the traffic don't actually live in LA, or at least that's what it looks like from their locations. ;) :D

Obviously if you fly into SNA that's the closest to your meeting, so if you can work the connections so that they're not too long that might be your best bet. Of course w/ connections there's always 1 more thing that can go wrong.

Depending on when you fly into LAX & have to get to SNA, traffic might be ok-heavy. If it's during rush hour then yeah it can take 90minutes. If not during rush hour, then about 45min.

If you did decide to get a car, it's a straight drive down the 405 from LAX to SNA. You're not going to get lost.

I'd say it's 50/50 on what to do; you'll have connection time if you don't do the nonstop, but if you do the nonstop you have driving time.

Cheers.

Hi

I took Roadrunner since they were the first to show up.....

had to pay upfront before we left the airport ! first time that ever happened

worked out good for me as I was the first one out and only 1/4 mile from the freeway, others were going as far as Santa Barbara

No better or worse than the other guys

cost was $40

thanks for your suggestions...

Rally

Thank you all for the helpful FT suggestions. Much obliged.

JetBlue nonstop IAD-LGB then 30-45 mins down the I-405 (in your rent-a-car, of course). OK, you could fly to SNA via PHX (US) or DFW (AA) but the traffic isn't that bad from LGB-SNA, at least I'd rather take the freeway drive over the connection hassle and time hit.

LGB isn't bad option...neither is LAX, depending on time of day (mid-day is 1/2 hour to cover the 35-40 miles).

SNA is best...AA, UA, US, DL, CO and others thru their major hubs. We're not that much out of the way...or inaccessible...and depending on date, airline, flights, often times you'll be able to fly to SNA for less than flights into LAX these days. It all depends...like all other airports and airlines these days. any way you cut it, you'll do just fine if you play it smart...

have a good flight and trip...

Driving down the 405 is a real iffy proposition, except at off hours (late at night). It's really a lot more trouble than just going direct. I would even fly directly to LA and take one of the puddle jumpers to SNA rather than attempt to drive it. Coming back you will have to allow all sorts of extra time for traffic and the long ride from the rental car agency to the terminal. I just can't see how it's worth it.