HOW TO GET
TO L.A. FROM PASADENA
DURING
RUSH HOUR
Copyright 1997, 2004, 2013, 2015
by Jim Hull
(Please cite
the author if you quote from this work)
No, this is not some
angst-driven, existential musing with a clever title. I really
mean to discuss how to get to downtown Los Angeles on the
Pasadena Freeway during morning rush hour.
Why should we stop the
presses for what might appear to be a trivial scrap of
commuter info? A number of people, deeply troubled and
intimidated by the daunting size of this problem, have asked
me to advise them. What, are they all moving to Pasadena?
Regardless, it is my duty as a citizen to help them if I can.
LA-area real estate prices
are always bloated, so Angelenos are ever in search of cheap
digs. More and more people are pouring into the film industry,
so housing in Burbank and Glendale - the locus of new showbiz
growth - is tight. It makes sense for these folks to foray
further east, to the San Gabriel Valley, where prices are
(somewhat) lower, charming bungalows are abundant, shade trees
grow in profusion, and the culturati - at Caltech, JPL, the
Huntington Library, and the Pasadena Playhouse - bump elbows
with the glitterati on the newly hip boulevards of Old Pasadena.
Still, central Los Angeles
is where so many of the jobs are and, no matter where we may
live hereabouts, eventually we reckon with the uncertain
adventure of a morning drive "downtown." If you live in
Pasadena, you will have to consider a ride on that odd,
curving, three-laned, 55-speed-limited highway which happens
to be the oldest freeway in the world, the spur of Interstate
110 known as the Pasadena Freeway.
Opened as a scenic highway
in 1940, the Arroyo Seco Freeway boasted complete freedom from
the dangers of intersections - most crossroads are bridges or
tunnels - and the brave new world of onramps, which have about
as much in common with a modern freeway access lane as your
driveway. The designers allowed the concrete thoroughfare -
two lanes each direction - to meander for most of its distance
along the path of the Arroyo Seco wash. That dry creek twists
and curves, and so does the freeway. This was thought an
asset, affording motorists a constantly changing view as they
wound their way downtown.
In later years a third lane
of asphalt was added each way along the median, and the road
got its modern moniker, the Pasadena Freeway. There is some
confusion about just how much of Interstate 110 is called the
Pasadena Freeway. Officially it begins at the I-10 Santa
Monica Freeway, but most local traffic reporters call it the
Harbor Freeway until it crosses under the world-famous
four-level interchange at the Hollywood Freeway. To further
confuse things, here is some official government gobbledegook
(which I am, sadly, unable to attribute) on the exact naming
of the Pasadena Freeway: That part of the California
highway system frequently referred to as the Pasadena
Freeway, which is the section of Interstate Highway Route
110 lying between milepost 25.7 and milepost 31.9 is hereby
designated a California Historic Parkway pursuant to Section
280, and is named the Arroyo Seco Parkway. Rest assured, everybody still
calls it the Pasadena Freeway.
But enough smalltalk.
Here's how to do it:
At this point you will inch
forward in heavy traffic at perhaps 8 miles an hour until you
reach your exit downtown. However - and here come the cute
tricks - you can save a few precious minutes by applying the
following simple techniques:
At this point you're on
your own; find your offramp and escape.
This system should save you
at least a few minutes each way. Use it! ... On the other
hand, should EVERY person who drives the Pasadena Freeway read
and follow these instructions, they won't work anymore. Hmm...
In that case, never mind!
Please disregard everything I've said here. Thank you.
If you find any part of this work
quoted without credit to the author, please let him know!
Thank you. jimhull@jimhull.com
But caveat auctor: Jim reserves the right to put
your little screed on his Web site! (And he has no dignity
about this, so be careful what you say...)
AND READERS RESPOND!
HEY, SKIP THE PASADENA
FREEWAY ALTOGETHER! Michael Hernandez-Stern writes:
Your directions on how to manage the 110 Freeway are dead-on; however, there are much quicker ways into Downtown and back that can be used even in the worst traffic. Traffic is heaviest at 8 a.m. If one is in Pasadena and needs to be in downtown in a hurry, may I suggest the following few auxiliary routes:
Taking the 210 west to the 134 Ventura Freewau
west to the 2 Glendale Freeway south automatically saves 10-15
minutes from the 110 south at rush hour. From there, one can
either take the 2 south to its completion and drive downtown
via Glendale or Alvarado Blvds (turning towards Downtown as
early or as late as necessitated), or, if one needs to get off
early into Downtown (say, Spring St.), one can take the 2
south to the 5 south to the 110 south, thus skipping the whole
traffic backup created before Dodger Stadium. There is
strategy involved in each:
For the 2 south to Glendale Blvd., there is a huge
traffic load from about 7:30 to 8:15; it is a bottleneck due
to so many people exiting the freeway (5 lanes) to Glendale
Blvd. (2.5 lanes). To navigate this, one should start out by
getting into the far-left lane before the 2/5 interchange so
as to avoid those trying to get onto the 5. Once one has
passed the 5, get into the furthest-left lane, because all the
lanes merge and this one is the last to merge, thus skipping
five minutes of traffic. This one also has the option of
moving into an empty #1 lane once the freeway has unloaded
onto the street. By this time, it has only been ten minutes or
so since you left Pasadena (or less, if you drive like a
banshee; I do). From here, you can get into the #2 lane
comfortably. Alvarado veers right after a few lights, which
requires you to be in the #2-4 lanes. From here you are just
minutes from Downtown. Take Sunset towards Downtown if you
need to be in northern Downtown, or keep going all the way to
Pico if you need to be at the Convention Center. My quickest
time to Loyola High School (Venice and Normandy, two blocks
from USC and 1.3 miles from the Staples Center) is 14 minutes
at 6:45 a.m.
For the 2 south to the 5 south to 110
south, far fewer directions are in order, but far
more maneuvering. On the 2 south, get into the #2 lane until
the 5 south comes up. The later one merges onto the 5 south,
the more time one saves in getting Downtown. Once onto the
transition that connects the 2 freeways, be in the #1 lane of
two lanes, for the #2 lane goes out onto Dodger Stadium.
(There is a secret way around Dodger Stadium and through
Elysian Park which beats all ways into Downtown, but that way
is reserved for those in a real jam and have me behind the
wheel.) Continue onto the 5 south. The lane you are in will
take you directly onto the 110 south. Get into the left lane
of the two that go onto the 110 south if you want to get into
the flow of traffic safely, or take the outer lane if you want
to be a bit risky and save some time off of your commute.
Often, the 110 south itself is backed
up due to rain or extremely bad traffic. If it is backed up
beyond Avenue 42, there are several routes which one can take
onto Huntington Dr., which leads either into Downtown (via
Pasadena Ave. or Main St.) or onto the 10 Freeway, which leads
one into the four-level interchange with the 110 in Downtown.
Getting out of Downtown: While getting
into Downtown is often confusing, getting out requires lots of
geography and a good feel for traffic. Everyone knows that the
110 north past the tunnels is a straight shot, but getting up
the hill and through the tunnels can make one want to drive
off of the road and into oncoming traffic. To counteract this,
one can take Figueroa through Downtown and enter the freeway
at the end of Fig. If going through the tunnels, one should
stay in the #3 or #4 lanes because #1 is backed up with
5-north drivers and #2 is filled with those slowing down to
cut into the line of 5-north drivers.
There are alternate routes out of
Downtown as well. One can do the reverse of the two
ways to take the 2 -- one of which is useless, because it
requires one to get onto the 5 north from the 110 north, thus
making one wait in the tunnels; the other can take quite a
long time, and the wait on Alvarado for the 2 at rush hour can
be easily described as "brutal" -- or one can take Figueroa
(or any street which cuts over the freeway, such as Alpine)
and go over the freeway to Chavez Ravine. Take Chavez Ravine
to the triple-street juncture, and move toward the Police
Academy. In essence, you are going around Dodger Stadium. Go
straight, and it will lead you into Elysian Park. This street
dead-ends into Stadium Way; take a left onto Stadium Way. This
will lead you to the 5 Freeway, if one needs to go there. The
quicker solution into Pasadena is to go further on Stadium
Way, continuing past the 5-south onramp. Veer left at the
juncture afterwards, and, two lights later, it will give a
sign to turn right for the 2 north. From
there, you are on the 2 to the 134 to the 210, right back into
Pasadena. This route has saved my skin more times than I can
count, and getting home before 7 p.m., when leaving downtown
after 6:40, is a satisfying feeling.
* * *
HEY, SKIP
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ALTOGETHER! Stan Fradd writes:
I lived this mess from 1965 to 1977. Can you believe it was unbearable then!! I had a home in the hills of Beachwood canyon and lived on the freeways. I knew the Pasadena well. I had to get out, so moved to Palm Springs till it got too much and now live in another state in a town with no stop lights. Paradise!!!
THE
ARTS! CITY LIFE!
PHILOSOPHY! POLITIX! NATURE! HUMOR!