Leaving Anaheim on a Friday

[V.I.N.C.E.N.T.]

We will be leaving Anaheim on a Friday this month (the 18th). Normally we leave on a Saturday to help with the traffic, due to pet sitting arrangements we had to tweak our days this year. I live in the Bay Area so I am familiar with Friday morning traffic up here. WOuld it be safe to assume that leaving in the 9:00 am to 10:30 am window would be the best for a Friday morning drive up north? I fully understand that traffic will be unavoidable, just trying to mitigate it as much as possible A bit concerned because is the Friday before Thanksgiving week.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Bud Ice]

Id say 3-4am is your best bet. But if during the day thats about right, more towards 10am.

 

[Darkbeer1]

Your major choke points will be Anaheim to northern LA County, say Castaic, and then once you are in the Bay area.

I presume you plan to use I-5 for most of the trip. I would get a GPS with live traffic,or use a smartphone app to help you in the drive through the LA area,multiple options that will get to the Santa Clarita area on the I-5. Look at Carpool lanes, and if you have a FasTrak Flex, the I-110 Express Lane is an option that my GPS sometimes recommends.

And your starting time does sound about right, but since it is the Friday before Thanksgiving, I might opt for a bit earlier, maybe 8:30 or so.

 

[Donalyn]

I don't know what to suggest, but will say that the worst traffic of my life was leaving Anaheim on an early Friday afternoon to go up to Big Bear. Never do that again!

 

[Darkbeer1]

Well, as a resident of Anaheim, my GPS is a very good friend of mine, I call her Samantha, due to the voice commands she uses (and she says the names of streets, etc.),

I have been stuck in awful traffic on strange days and expected days. I-5 south to San Diego can get really bad just due an accident or the current construction.

I have been suck headed to Temecula on the I-15 on Christmas Day, when they closed the entire freeway due to an accident.

As for heading to Las Vegas on I-15, that can be a parking lot on a weekend, and also does close a few times a year do to weather/snow.

The Grapevine on the I-5 near Castaic also closed due to weather, sometimes snow, sometimes fog.

But the redirection that my GPS gives gets me through a lot of messes in the Southland, where there are multiple options than just one main freeway. Accident and construction a fact of life 24/7 here, and I have had worse traffic on weekends then work days.

I do use my FasTrak, carpool lanes and other options to help out also.

 

[ParkHopper1]

I live in the Bay Area and drive from Anaheim and LA all the time for both work and DL trips. 9:30-10:30a is indeed the ideal window to leave Anaheim weekdays. 9a you will still get some residual morning rush hour(s) traffic heading into LA then around noon there is another bit of traffic at lunch time northbound and if you are not through Downtown by 2p...good luck till after 8pm.

 

[StormyCA]

We've always left on Friday for home, but leave around 11 and have never sat in traffic. Slowdowns to 30 mph for a few minutes thru downtown LA, yes, but never just 'sat'. We're usually home by 7ish (a bit east of Sacramento).

I'd be more concerned about the Bay Area afternoon rush, depending on where in the BA you're headed. The only time we really had a bad time was when our destination was BFF's house (Santa Rosa), we left DL around 9:30 and traffic by the time we hit the BA was horrible! We didn't get to her house until almost 8pm.

 

[Butterfly123]

We usually target leaving on a Friday between 9:15-9:30. There is traffic but it's doable. We get home before the weekend for our dog sitting arrangements, too.

 

[soma151]

I don't know what to suggest, but will say that the worst traffic of my life was leaving Anaheim on an early Friday afternoon to go up to Big Bear. Never do that again!

I got that beat, Fri afternoon one hour outside Mexico city. The good thing about Mexico it has street venders in traffic.

 

[V.I.N.C.E.N.T.]

Thanks for the responses everyone! I work in the public sector on transportation issues so I am very familiar with Bay Area traffic. I have Fastrack Flex and plan on using it