Alternative driving route, SJ to DLR, via I-5 to 405?

[disneydenisel]

Hi there,

I am driving the two kids down to DLR by myself next month. Has anyone ever bypassed I-5 and taken 405 once over the Grapevine and into Valencia? My recollection is that I-5 pretty much comes to a standstill just after Magic Mountain and it takes forever and a day to get to DLR from there. Okay, I am exaggerating a bit, but not by much .

Would we have better luck taking the 405 and cutting back over to Anaheim at some point?

We drove to Poway/San Diego over Christmas last year and took the 405 there. Never saw any traffic like we typically did on I-5, though had to drive on toll roads and pay a $3, I think. Since Anaheim is not as far south, maybe we would miss the toll road?

 

[brergnat]

405 is always better than I-5, traffic wise, but it's a longer trip. And, you have to take the 91 East, which can be REALLY bad too, or the 55 North, but then you end up back at I-5 and have to go back up NORTH to get to DLR.

I'd say just stay on 5. It's the most direct route.

 

[ParkHopper1]

Totally depends what day and time you are traveling through.

I drive to So Cal several times a month from the Bay Area (sometimes several times a week), and honestly, I always feel it is quicker just to deal with 5. If it is at a time that there is traffic on 5, there will always be traffic somewhere else too. Never had any luck with trying to dodge 5 other than Saturdays around noon heading NB on 5 from DL to LA, always seems to be a back up, then I sometimes take 405.

Morning rush hour, you're screwed southbound from Magic Mountain to LA, Mid day, you will hit some traffic early afternoon in Commerce just south of LA, evening rush hour, you will be stuck LA to DLR, by 8pm, free sailing! (well, as free as you can sail in LA anyway!)

 

[disneydenisel]

405 is always better than I-5, traffic wise, but it's a longer trip. And, you have to take the 91 East, which can be REALLY bad too, or the 55 North, but then you end up back at I-5 and have to go back up NORTH to get to DLR.

I'd say just stay on 5. It's the most direct route.

Thank you for the reply! I am studying online maps right now...

What if I take the 405 to 22 East, is that an awful stretch of road for 9 miles? Then I would have to be on I-5 N for a short time, I guess.

 

[disneydenisel]

Totally depends what day and time you are traveling through.

I drive to So Cal several times a month from the Bay Area (sometimes several times a week), and honestly, I always feel it is quicker just to deal with 5. If it is at a time that there is traffic on 5, there will always be traffic somewhere else too. Never had any luck with trying to dodge 5 other than Saturdays around noon heading NB on 5 from DL to LA, always seems to be a back up, then I sometimes take 405.

Morning rush hour, you're screwed southbound from Magic Mountain to LA, Mid day, you will hit some traffic early afternoon in Commerce just south of LA, evening rush hour, you will be stuck LA to DLR, by 8pm, free sailing! (well, as free as you can sail in LA anyway!)

Our typical time to hit the Castaic area is about 2:30-3:00 PM, so traffic has always been stopped. I don't think we can really leave San Jose until 9:00 AM at the earliest, and we will usually stop at least twice. The last time we drove to DLR, it was 2004, and we left here at 9 and got there at 4:30, I think.

What was interesting about our December trip to Poway/San Diego is that we camped over at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park for a few nights and drove home via 15 and eventually to I-5, but never saw any traffic because we skipped all of that congestion . We drove Anza-Borrego to San Jose in one day and hit zero traffic. Amazing!

 

[smile4stamps]

I've only made the drive once. I left at 7:30 am Monday morning. Made 2 short stops. Arrived in Anaheim at my hotel at 1:15pm. I did not encounter any standstill traffic.

On the way home I left at noon. Arrived home about 6pm. Again 2 stops on the way back and not much traffic. That was on a Friday.

 

[cloudconnected1039]

I'd personally try your hardest to leave before 8 am. As hard as it may be to gather the gang up that early, it will be to your benefit when you finally get into the LA traffic. And I've found that typically, the 405 is better traffic wise. The few times I've driven the 5 at around 12 to 2, the traffic was TERRIBLE. I'm not sure if that was just those days or what, but it was frustrating. And in my experiences, the 405 to the 55 to the 5 to DLR is about a 15-25 minute trip even with some traffic. Most of the traffic in that route is where the freeways merge, that can get messy.

But I would find a way to figure out the traffic reports while on your journey, whether thats through a phone app or on a laptop, that should help your make your decision when you get there.

 

[disfan07]

I live in Valencia and yes traffic is always at a standstill in this area. Once you get thorught the Newhall pass and past the 14 it usually gets better. The 14/5 split is the worst thing ever created. Its been at a standstill at midnight before. However, if the 5 is really backed up, you can get off and go surface roads all the way to the 405 instead.

If you get off at Pico Canyon, you can take the Old Road all the way to Balboa turn right onto Balboa, turn left onto Rinaldi and that will take you straight to the 405.

If you just want to get past the really crappy Valencia/Santa Clarita part of the 5, you can get on the old road and take that until it turns in to San Fernando Road and you can get on the 5 further down.

I've driven both the 5 and the 405 from Valencia to Irvine and visa versa....I have had an easy drive and I have had drives where it is a parking lot. And at no specific times of the day either. Once, at 8:00AM, the 405 was empty but the next week at 9:30AM it was jam packed. It really is unpredictable.

 

[PinkBudgie]

Coming from the North Bay, we always leave early so we can hit the Grape Vine rest area for lunch and reach Anaheim by 1 or 2. At that time we have a little bit of slow traffic in spots but not so much to make us go out of our way on another road. We just make sure we never arrive down there at prime rush hour time.

 

[GrandBob]

Whenever we've taken 405S (to visit my niece in Santa Monica), we generally take 405S to 110N (for less than a mile north on 110) to 91E to 5S. I'm not any kind of expert on SoCal freeways, but this has always worked very well for us.

-Bob

 

[byebyekitty]

How bad is the traffic on I-5 South between 9~11am on weekdays?
I will be driving from approximately 100 miles north of Disneyland.
Thank you!

 

[disneydenisel]

I'd personally try your hardest to leave before 8 am. As hard as it may be to gather the gang up that early, it will be to your benefit when you finally get into the LA traffic. And I've found that typically, the 405 is better traffic wise. The few times I've driven the 5 at around 12 to 2, the traffic was TERRIBLE. I'm not sure if that was just those days or what, but it was frustrating. And in my experiences, the 405 to the 55 to the 5 to DLR is about a 15-25 minute trip even with some traffic. Most of the traffic in that route is where the freeways merge, that can get messy.

But I would find a way to figure out the traffic reports while on your journey, whether thats through a phone app or on a laptop, that should help your make your decision when you get there.

Many thanks to everyone for their driving route tips. It really sounds like I will have to leave early (we used to leave at 5:00 AM when I was a kid...ah, the good old days...) in order to have a pleasant drive. If that fails, then I will be watching traffic reports as best I can while driving, or take some surface roads as suggested. In any case, we are going to Disneyland, right? So everything will be good once we get there .