Departure day--what time to leave to avoid I-5 rush hour?

[thunderbird1]

Or at least the worst of it, lol. This will be our first time driving down, and we're planning on leaving sometime on Monday, May 31. It's Memorial Day, so I'd expect rush hour to be a little lighter than usual, but it's the end of a holiday weekend, so there will also likely be more traffic in general than usual.

We'll be heading north on I-5, and dh was thinking of heading out around 4-5, but if we're just going to sit in traffic for 2 hours I'd rather spend it in the parks and leave a little later. Or maybe it will be busier later as everyone will be heading home after the long holiday weekend.

Any thoughts or suggestions? TIA!

 

[jory29]

I don't have any info. to share about it, but I remember how motion sick my son's friend and I were, when we were driving back to LAX the morning of our departure on a Tuesday morning around 8:30 am. Oh my gosh, there were so many stops and starts!!! I think it took just a little around an hour. We had to ask our express shuttle driver to crank open all the windows. I will never ever ride that route again without gravol in my system. When we went from LAX to Hojo hotel on the Tues. prior, it was around 11:30 am and the ride seemed very speedy, and no stop and starts.

Good luck finding out the info. you need. Someone here will help you out.

 

[BELLEDOZER]

IMHO if you leave between 10am and 2pm you should avoid most of the LA traffic on the I-5. We got caught in it last feb driving home from DL, and got stuck in rush hour for over an hour before managing to cut over to the PCH, and we left at 8:30am. I would also say after 6 pm to avoid the worst of the afternoon rush, but you never know with the traffic on the I-5. Hope that this helps you out.

 

[blackjackdelta]

We always leave on a Sat so as to avoid some traffic and usually around 0700. Last couple of times it has been smooth sailing thru the grapevine north bound.

Jack

 

[PrincessIM]

Thanks for posting this. I was wondering the same thing.

 

[skiingfast]

Or at least the worst of it, lol. This will be our first time driving down, and we're planning on leaving sometime on Monday, May 31. It's Memorial Day, so I'd expect rush hour to be a little lighter than usual, but it's the end of a holiday weekend, so there will also likely be more traffic in general than usual.

We'll be heading north on I-5, and dh was thinking of heading out around 4-5, but if we're just going to sit in traffic for 2 hours I'd rather spend it in the parks and leave a little later. Or maybe it will be busier later as everyone will be heading home after the long holiday weekend.

Any thoughts or suggestions? TIA!

If you are leaving on Mermorial day the traffic is heavier as people get out of the house to do things, but more evenly distributed throughout the day.

I would leave later, 6 or 6:30. Take the extra couple hours in the park. You'll have let most of the 9 to5ers get home and out of your way.

 

[disneywondergirl22]

Or at least the worst of it, lol. This will be our first time driving down, and we're planning on leaving sometime on Monday, May 31. It's Memorial Day, so I'd expect rush hour to be a little lighter than usual, but it's the end of a holiday weekend, so there will also likely be more traffic in general than usual.

We'll be heading north on I-5, and dh was thinking of heading out around 4-5, but if we're just going to sit in traffic for 2 hours I'd rather spend it in the parks and leave a little later. Or maybe it will be busier later as everyone will be heading home after the long holiday weekend.

Any thoughts or suggestions? TIA!

avoid the 5 altogether. it's always traffic-laden except (usually) between the hours of about 10pm-6am.

to avoid all of that mess (at least for a while, once you hit LA, good luck)


5 North from Disneyland, about 3-5 miles
91 West about 15-20 minutes
110 towards San Pedro (NOT towards LA)
You don't actually get on the 110; from the 110 exit ramp, if you stay in the right lane, that sort of becomes the 405N



the 405 in that area is gonna kill you, but it won't be any better or worse than taking the 5 because it's all around the city, and it just sucks on both sides of town on the highways. if you really want to take the 5 home, then I believe you can take the 110 towards LA, and eventually you'll run into the 5 again.

 

[cooniez]

Another thanks for posting this! I've been meaning to post my own thread since I'll be driving to DL from the Silicon Valley in June. Does anyone know how bad it usually is on a Thursday?

 

[thunderbird1]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll check out that alternate route. While I'd love to avoid I-5 altogether, eventually we'll have to get back on it, since we live off of I-5 up in Washington, lol.

 

[disneywondergirl22]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll check out that alternate route. While I'd love to avoid I-5 altogether, eventually we'll have to get back on it, since we live off of I-5 up in Washington, lol.

well yea, but avoid it any way you can between DLR and about 15 miles north of LA. since you live in another state, you probably have several hours worth of opportunity to get back on it.

or you could sit in traffic all day in LA, as i do on a weekly basis when i plan wrong (of course, it's LA traffic, there's no such thing as planning; there's no rush hour, no "bad time", no "bad place", it's ALL bad just noting that for all hehe).

i'm a CM. drove from LA city to Anaheim 10 times a week (5 round trips). i know the traffic. best to avoid the 5 in that area at ALL times, except, as i said, in the middle of the night.

even that could be problematic. in fact, the whole reason i learned about that side route is because for several weeks, when i left work and it was after midnight, the 5 was completely closed and all traffic was forced onto the 91.

 

[Somegirl]

Another thanks for posting this! I've been meaning to post my own thread since I'll be driving to DL from the Silicon Valley in June. Does anyone know how bad it usually is on a Thursday?

Hi, we drive from the Monterey Bay area and we've had drives down where it felt like the last 20 miles took half the trip. We take 101 so we don't get on 5 until the Burbank ( it think) area. The one time that it was just awful there was a Dodger and an Angels game going on, and it was rush hour so try to avoid that situation if you can.
I think I'll look into the PP above suggested route. Although the 405 and 110 can be crazy too.

 

[DirkLogan]

http://www.sigalert.com/Map.asp?Region=Greater+Los+Angeles

When I have looked at this before, I think I found that from about 7:30 am to about 9:30 it was busy on the I-5.

 

[thunderbird1]

We came down on Thursday morning before Memorial Day, and did spend some time sitting in traffic on the way in, but we were hours ahead of schedule so figured we'd just wait it out.

We left on Memorial Day around 4:30 and were planning to cut across to I-405, but there was practically no traffic so we decided to chance it and it was amazing--no traffic jams at all for the entire trip home (1600 miles!). Well, we did slow down for about 5 minutes around Burbank, but that was because an RV had caught fire. It was out by the time we got there, but about half of it was gone. I hope everyone was all right, and what a crummy way to end the holiday weekend.

Anyway, thanks again for all the help and suggestions!

 

[50sjayne]

Thank you for the update.