Los Angeles County Commute

 

For current traffic conditions, go to www.traffic411.com.

 

Overview

Down through the decades, the Los Angeles commute, addicted to the car and freeway, has been elevated to the status of horrible.

For millions, the commute is indeed long, wearying and infuriating.

But for countless others, the commute can be described as endurable and for the lucky, short and almost painless.

Here is an overview of commuting that may help you identify shortcuts.

Terrain

Although Los Angeles County is large, about half size of Massachusetts, much of its land is steep and divided by deep ravines (the San Gabriel, Verdugo and Santa Monica mountains) and unsuitable for housing.

L.A. sprawls but in many places it sprawls compactly - few empty lots, many apartment complexes. This shrinks commuting distances.

Being fairly flat, the land lends itself not only to freeways but to wide and long arterials that crisscross the San Fernando Valley and the L.A. Basin, all the way to Long Beach.

The San Francisco region has bays and rivers and seven toll bridges, everyone a bottleneck.

Los Angeles has zero toll bridges and with the exception of Long Beach, no large bodies of water to cross. The Los Angeles River for most of the year should be called the Los Angeles Brook.

Outside of peak hours, you can often get around Los County very quickly.

Job Centers

In some metropolitan regions, the jobs are clustered in one or several locations and the housing in separate neighborhoods. Commutes congest in part because many people are traveling in the same directions at the same time.

L.A. County has this problem but perhaps not to the extent of other regions.It does not have one or two job centers; it has at least eight and with the many freeways this diversifies the commute and shortens the drive or ride for thousands. Many people live close to their jobs.

The job centers include:

• Downtown Los Angeles, also a cultural center. Major universities nearby.
• Los Angeles International Airport, which has many shipping jobs and in the vicinity high-tech and industrial plants.
• San Fernando Valley. Entertainment studios and aeronautics. Burbank and Van Nuys airports, manufacturing plants.
• The City of Industry, on the east side. One of several municipalities devoted almost entirely to commerce and manufacturing.
• West Los Angeles, studios, office complexes, UCLA (enrollment 35,000, faculty 3,300).
• Long Beach, large university and extensive port facilities plus manufacturing.
• Lancaster-Palmdale, the high desert, next to Edwards Air Force Base, where the space shuttle occasionally lands. Aeronautics manufacturing and research.
• Orange County. Disneyland, many industrial plants and office complexes.

Moreover, many of L.A.'s small and mid-size cities have a fair number of jobs. Pasadena has the California Institute of Technology (Cal Tech) and several museums; Pomona, a university and a large state hospital, Culver City, Sony Studios, El Segundo, an oil refinery and large hotels, Santa Fe Springs, industrial plants, Claremont and La Verne, universities and Ontario Airport (San Bernardino County), Torrance, airport and oil refinery, and so on.

Commuting Happiness

• Take to the streets - when the freeways are hopelessly jammed. Buy a good map book, use computer directions. A map book will show you all the arterial streets.
• Car pool or buddy up with co-workers. Traffic planners are rewarding high-occupancy vehicles (two or three people) with dedicated freeway lanes. Not too long ago, these lanes were few and scattered; now they are many and integrated. They can make a big difference in speeding the freeway commute.
• Buy a high-mileage vehicle. Then you can drive solo in the car pool  lanes.
  
• Avoid peak hours. Many do. If you can start and quit work a little earlier, it can cut a chunk of minutes off your commute.
• Move close your job. We know ... duh! But in many metropolitan areas, this is not feasible because of limited housing choices. In L.A. County, the choices are many and varied. Take the time to scout the neighborhoods; you might find a good fit.
• Take a bus, a train, a light-rail car or the subway. L.A. has them. As much as they love the freeways, Angelenos realize that the boom days of freeway construction are over. The lands are settled; no town wants a new freeway running through its backyard. Improvements are being made: lanes added, overpasses rebuilt but for major relief, the region is putting its money into trains, buses and light-rail.

The Metro, Metrolink, Amtrak, other agencies

Los Angeles County and almost all its cities have everyday buses that travel the streets and pick up passengers at designated stops. You board, pay your fare, and off you go.

Some of bus services are provided by the cities. Typically, these buses will serve local residents and stores and connect to a shuttle that goes to a popular destination, such as LAX. Or the city will run the shuttle itself. For information on these services, go the city's web site.

Most of the buses are run by the L.A. County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which also oversees several light-rail lines and an unusual service that suggests the future of busing. This agency is often called "The Metro" or the MTA. See following for major lines.

Metrolink, a separate agency, runs large commute trains on regular rail tracks. All its lines originate outside the county (see following) and lead to Union Station in downtown Los Angeles.

Amtrak generally runs on the same rails as Metrolink and it's easy to transfer between the two. Amtrak runs trains nation wide. Of special note, Amtrak offers service to San Diego and many coastal cities. If you live in L.A. and have to go to San Diego, Amtrak might be more comfortable and convenient than the car or plane.

The Metro or MTA

Metro runs many of the local buses in the City of Los Angeles and neighboring communities and it links to the other bus companies and to Metro (train) stations.

Metro also fields light-rail cars, a subway and an unusual bus service. These services are color coded and often referred to as the Blue Line, the Orange Line, etc.

In recent years, cities have encouraged "smart growth" around the transit stations, especially the popular ones. This type of development often mixes apartments and condos with retail stores, restaurants and neighborhood parks. The idea is to get residents to shop locally, take the train or bus and avoid the car.

Here are the main lines:

• Blue Line. Light rail. From Long Beach to Downtown L.A. North-south.
• Green Line. Light rail. From Norwalk to Redondo Beach, crossing the Blue line. East-west. Shuttle buses to and from one station to Los Angeles International Airport.
• Gold Line. Light rail. From downtown L.A. (Union Station) north to Pasadena.
• Red Line. Subway. From North Hollywood in the San Fernando Valley, under the hills to Hollywood, then south to Wilshire Boulevard and east to downtown L.A. Popular.
• Orange Line. Bus. From Warner Center (near Woodlands in the San Fernando Valley) to the North Hollywood subway station. Employs long buses, articulated in the middle, with extra doors for fast boarding and exiting. Like the light-rail cars, these buses travel a dedicated corridor that gives them precedence over motor vehicles.

The Orange Line, in a short time, has proved popular and is being extended to the north valley.

For information, www.mta.net

Metrolink

Large trains designed for commute service. Here are the major lines and many of the cities served.

• Antelope Valley Line. Downtown LA, Glendale, Burbank, Sun Valley, Sylmar-San Fernando, Santa Clarita, Palmdale, Lancaster.
• San Bernardino Line. Downtown L.A., El Monte, Baldwin Park, Covina, Pomona, Claremont, Montclair, Upland, Rancho Cucamonga, Fontana, Rialto, San Bernardino.
• Riverside Line. Downtown L.A., Montebello-Commerce, Industry, Pomona downtown, East Ontario, Pedley, Riverside (downtown).
• Ventura Line. Downtown L.A., Glendale, Burbank downtown, Burbank Airport, Van Nuys, Northridge, Chatsworth, Simi Valley, Moorpark, Camarillo, Oxnard, Ventura. For information, www.metrolinktrains.com

Transfers and Discounts

Many of the lines mentioned "link" with one another and give discounts to frequent riders. This information can be obtained from the web sites or from literature at the stations. Or by calling the services.

• Ride Sharing, Car Pooling, Park-and-Ride Lots.

For information on all, call (800) COMMUTE (800-266-6883). The transit agencies are straining to get people off the road and will help you find a car-pool or ride-share.

School Buses

After Prop. 13, the tax-cut revolution of 1978, school busing throughout California was drastically curtailed. To this day, many districts do not provide it. Those that do will sometimes charge parent. Check with the local school districts.

Miscellaneous

• Work to begin in 2009 on another lane for Interstate 405 (San Diego Freeway) from west Los Angeles to the San Fernando Valley. The lane will run north and at peak hours be restricted to high-occupancy vehicles. Completion: 2012.
• The Gold Line is being extended east from Pasadena to Claremont with stops in cities along the way. These cities include Monrovia, Irwindale, Duarte, Azusa, Glendora, La Verne, Pomona and Montclair (end of line).