Frequently Asked Question: Is traffic in Los Angeles really that bad?
Another question I get from people outside of L.A.: Is traffic in Los Angeles really that bad?
Not to scare you off, but all of the stories of Los Angeles are true; traffic can be pretty awful. Knowing this sets your expectations at the right level to come here and enjoy this city. Or maybe I am purposefully setting your expectations low so that you will be pleasantly surprised?
Table of Contents
Why is there so much traffic?
Los Angeles is a town of over 10 million people.
Let that sink in for a minute. There are more people in this city than the populations of entire states combined.
When I moved here, I was surprised by how residential this city is. It is a city where people have homes mixed in with tall buildings, studios, and office parks. Television made Los Angeles seem similar to Manhattan with a central core. Stock Footage shows iconic downtown buildings like the Bonaventure and U.S. Bank Building when segueing back from commercial to shows shot in L.A. They rarely feature the rows of Spanish-style houses or the vast sea of 1920s and 1970s apartment buildings.
Los Angeles is designed to be a car town.
Our public transportation used to be pretty extensive, but it was dismantled decades ago. We have so much catching up to do to match cities like New York, Tokyo, or Toronto in terms of public transit. We don’t even have a train that serves LAX, but it is coming. Having a car or a rideshare account is an unfortunate necessity. This means a lot of cars clogging up the major arteries.
All of the above might make you think that being in Los Angeles isn’t worth the trouble. Traffic, although ever-present, is a small price to pay for fantastic weather and the myriad of other things to love about this city.
Know the hours of traffic and try to avoid them.
My tip for you to make life easier is to know the hours of rush hour and then avoid them. The following are my observations over the past decade-plus.
The work week
Monday – Wednesdays
The morning workweek rush hour is between 7:35 a.m. – 9:30 a.m., starting again at 4:30 p.m. and ending around 7:30 p.m.
Tip: Leave your area around 12:00 p.m., explore a neighborhood, and come home around 8:00 p.m.
Thursdays
Thursday is a crazy beast that makes no sense. After thirteen years of living here, I have yet to see a pattern. Thursday is the new Friday and the beginning of our weekend. Normal hours of traffic do not apply. Just know this and perhaps stay local or go with the flow.
Fridays
7:35 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. and starting again at 2:00 p.m. with no consistent end time. Los Angeles sticks to workplace summer hours all year round. People working later on Thursday means an early leave time on Friday.
Tip: Leave your area around 12:00 p.m., explore a neighborhood, and come home around 8:00 p.m.
On the Weekends
Half the city goes downtown on the weekends, and the other half goes to the beach. Either way, several hundreds of thousands of people going one way and a million going the other way is a whole lot of people on the 10 or the 405. Since the city has no center, people’s interests take them all over the city.
You made my brain hurt with that word problem; how do I avoid traffic?
If public transit is accessible to you, you should take it.
Going downtown
I have always thought that the best way to get to downtown Los Angeles is by train. Not only do you avoid traffic, but you also skip dreaded downtown parking which is hard to find and/or expensive. Besides, with trains like the Expo line, you can get a great view of the Hollywood sign, hop off and get a bite to eat in Culver City, or visit any of the museums on the University of Southern California (USC) campus.
Trains that serve DTLA: Expo, Red, Purple, and Blue lines.
Going to the beach
Going to Santa Monica or up the Pacific Coast Highway to Malibu should be avoided on the weekends. Go to the beach on weekdays. The 405 South is strangely clear for some unexplained reason after 9:00 a.m. Although Santa Monica, Venice, and Malibu come first to mind because of their proximity, there are some really great beaches to the south, like Manhattan, Seal, and Redondo. Also, Expo Line’s final westbound stop is Santa Monica which lets off three blocks from the beach.
Some other things to keep in mind
There are other routes to get from DTLA to Santa Monica and Venice Beach other than the major highways/freeways. Wilshire Blvd, for example, can be made into a mini-field trip in itself, with stops in Koreatown, LACMA, Beverly Hills, and UCLA.
Once people get out of their cars, there is still People traffic
Los Angeles is the land of late risers and all-week brunchers. More often than not, you end up waiting in line for just about everything.
With a whole lot of people not doing the 9 to 5 thing in Los Angeles, there aren’t very many sacred days where you can have a museum, a mall, or a grocery store all to yourself. There is this magic hour when the stars align for a mostly person-less L.A. experience. This involves getting up a little earlier. Go to brunch, shop, or wander starting at 10:00 a.m. If you happen to want to bottomless mimosa yourself silly, get to brunch by 11:30 a.m.
In conclusion (or TL;DR)
Take the train, go to the beach on the weekdays, eat your banana Nutella crepe at the Grove with a strong cup of coffee by 11:00 a.m. to get a head start on all that shopping, and Los Angeles will seem from the outside like everyone is exaggerating.
If you learn anything from zen-like California, learn this. All traffic is a temporary state, if you fight against it, it will swallow you up. If you go with it, you may arrive late but a lot less crabby. No one worries about being late in Los Angeles.
Do you have any tips to share about dealing with traffic? Share them in the comments.
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Comments (3)
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