OK, I GET it!
LA has crap traffic. Otherwise, why would it take 7 hours to get back to San Francisco instead of the usual 5?
Got on the 405 yesterday at 1600 at the 190th Street entrance. Sat in weekday rush hour grade traffic.
WTF?
Had to get outta there. So took the 105E to the 110N via the carpool lanes. So far, so good. Traffic is flowing like crap through a goose.
Then the carpool lane ends and BAM, back in congestion so awful that only a San Francisco traffic planner with its head full of traffic calming ideas could love.
Creep creep creep through downtown and get to the 5N. It moves for 1/4 of a mile and then BAM, more congestion. Remember, this is "weekday grade" traffic, which means in english, traffic just like the weekday commute. That means bad, folks.
The 5 is not moving. So I decide to try to bypass the entire San Fernando Valley. I take the 2N to the 210W which connects to the 5N right before Magic Mountain. Or somewhere out there in the Santa Clarita valley.
Gettting out of LA yesterday took over 2 hours! Bleagh!
On the other hand, we made it to Pea Soup Andersen's before they closed. Strangely filling.
Got back to SF after midnight. That was a drive that was much too long...
And yet I can get, going to opposite way, from pretty much Palmdale all the way to UCLA (LA proper) in about 35 minutes. Through the entire valley.
There is some good things to come from living in nowheresville.
Let me guess though, you left anywhere around 2 to 5?