How busy are the LA area hiways on Saturdays?

[Lollipop's Mom]

I am driving from disney area to the hollywood/bev hills area on a Saturday. Are the highways as busy as weekdays? Am I better to set the GPS to take a non-highway route?
Thanks!

 

[Raindown]

You, should be ok. It can get a little busy on the 101 near hollywood, but usually only going southbound.

 

[Lollipop's Mom]

You, should be ok. It can get a little busy on the 101 near hollywood, but usually only going southbound.

Super thanks.

 

[HydroGuy]

Traffic is light on Saturdays. Except when it's not.

 

[blackjackdelta]

Traffic is light on Saturdays. Except when it's not.

 

[Sherry E]

Depends on what freeway you are taking. If you are going straight to Beverly Hills, you wouldn't be getting on the 101 at all. But you would have to be on the 5 freeway at some point, for at least part of the way back, and there always seems to be traffic on that freeway, unless you are driving at something like 6:00 a.m. on a weekend. For example, I live in the Beverly Hills Adjacent area (meaning if you go out of my house and walk two blocks west, you are in the official city of Beverly Hills). It takes 40 or 45 minutes to get to Anaheim on a day with NO traffic (and we would take the 10 East freeway to the 5 South freeway to get down there). On a day with traffic, it can be at least twice that loing to get down there, so weekdays are especially bad.

As far as driving/returning to Bev. Hills from DLR, there have been times when we have been heading back to my house after a day or weekend at DLR, on a Saturday or a Sunday, and we took the 5 North to the 10 West (which is pretty much what you would need to take to get to Beverly Hills from Anaheim), and the freeway was jam-packed in the middle of the day. The 5 seems to have a lot of back-ups due to accidents or whatever reason (last time at DLR, I came back to Beverly Hills from DLR on a Saturday night, and the 5 was closed, forcing us to take side streets for a lot of the way. It took soooo long to get home!). So if you are traveling either North or South on the 5 freeway on a Saturday, I would suggest you do it really early in the morning.

Also a side note, even though everything in this area - my area of town - is pretty close together and easy to access via the main streets such as Fairfax, La Brea, La Cienega, etc., those streets also get very busy. So getting from Beverly Hills to Hollywood or vice versa is simple with a quick jaunt north or south on one of those streets, but there's a lot of street traffic around here so everything takes longer. Everything is in like a 5-mile radius so it is a really popular area - Beverly Hills/Rodeo Drive, Hollywood Blvd, Sunset Blvd., Melrose and Santa Monica Blvd., The Grove/Farmers Market, LACMA/La Brea Tar Pits, the Screen Actors Guild, CBS, etc., etc., and just an extra couple of miles beyond that down Wilshire Blvd. is the Santa Monica Pier and the beach.

 

[Lollipop's Mom]

Thanks! We vacation every march for an event in Studio City, but this year are doing disney first and driving over. I know the hollywood/bev hills area well when I am there, but the hiways are new to me. We actually have to drive over around 10-11am on the Saturday and back at about 11pm at night....
Well I will have my GPS with me and hope for the best!!
Thanks so much for the info!

 

[LavenderPeach]

Traffic is light on Saturdays. Except when it's not.

That sounds about right.

You might also want to check the caltrans website for possible freeway closures at night. I'm not saying there will be any on your route but we've had many, many times when we were driving home late from somewhere and all of a sudden there is tons of traffic because they're closing the freeway so they can work on it. They slowly direct you off the freeway which takes forever and then once you get off, there are a couple of detour signs telling you where to go and there is a whole crowd of people to follow but after only a few minutes the signs and the other cars disappear and they've left you in the middle of a strange city wondering where to go. These days with a GPS it wouldn't be as bad but it was awful when all we had was our thomas guide - especially when we would see bars on all the windows.

Anyway, we've been on the 5 when it closed before and it took us 2-3 hours when it should have only taken us 45-60 minutes so it might be good to check just to make sure.

 

[MagicKingdomBoy]

I've lived in Studio City in L.A. for 30 years. I find the traffic on Saturdays to be awful. The 101 and the 5 are crappy. The OP asked is they should take a GPS alternate to the freeway. I have done that several times, but unfortunately, with all the red lights and other congestion, I think you're better off just sticking with the freeway. If you have GPS and there is a problem with the freeway, then by all means, take the alternate. Otherwise, I think you're probably best just sticking with the freeway.