Driving from LA to Santa Barbara over Labor Day
August 15, 2022 5:35 PM Subscribe
I have committed to a dog/house sitting gig in Santa Barbara from Friday 9/2 to Monday 9/5 (Labor Day). I figured there would be holiday traffic, but people are telling me it could take 7 hours! For people who have done this trip, how can I best beat traffic?
I was hoping to leave Los Angeles at around 9 or 10 or Friday (9/2) before the holiday, but I'm hearing that Friday is when everyone leaves town and it will be gridlock. And of course, my gig ends on 9/5. I was thinking that people would still be at their bbq and head back later in the day and I originally said I would stay until noon, but I can negotiate to leave a little earlier I think, if necessary. I would take the train, but I think I will need a car when I get up there. What advice do you have for me to not ruin the whole experience by being stuck in traffic for a very long time? Thanks!
I was hoping to leave Los Angeles at around 9 or 10 or Friday (9/2) before the holiday, but I'm hearing that Friday is when everyone leaves town and it will be gridlock. And of course, my gig ends on 9/5. I was thinking that people would still be at their bbq and head back later in the day and I originally said I would stay until noon, but I can negotiate to leave a little earlier I think, if necessary. I would take the train, but I think I will need a car when I get up there. What advice do you have for me to not ruin the whole experience by being stuck in traffic for a very long time? Thanks!
Oh wow. I would truly, 100% avoid this drive on this schedule. It's not going to be seven hours, but it will be some variety of hell. Friday traffic will be really bad. DO NOT leave at 9 or 10 am. The only time I'd do that drive on that Friday is around 4-5 am. You should avoid a lot of pain if you're on the road by then, even though you'll eventually mix with at least some commuter/holiday traffic.
Labor Day traffic going south will likely be even worse (since a fair number of vacationers leave on Thursday instead of Friday, but pretty much everyone returns on Monday). It probably doesn't matter what time you leave, unless it's very late Monday night, like after 10 pm.
If you can leave Wednesday and return Tuesday, that'd be a different story. The other option is, drive up in the wee hours of Friday morning, and then find a place to chill until you're expected at the house (fortunately, there are a lot of nice places to go in SB). On Monday afternoon, find another place you can safely chill until late at night (restaurant? one that's open on the holiday?). But if you can't alter your days or hours, and can't take the train, consider cancelling. This is long enough before the holiday that the homeowners should be able to replace you easily.
posted by desert outpost at 6:01 PM on August 15, 2022
Labor Day traffic going south will likely be even worse (since a fair number of vacationers leave on Thursday instead of Friday, but pretty much everyone returns on Monday). It probably doesn't matter what time you leave, unless it's very late Monday night, like after 10 pm.
If you can leave Wednesday and return Tuesday, that'd be a different story. The other option is, drive up in the wee hours of Friday morning, and then find a place to chill until you're expected at the house (fortunately, there are a lot of nice places to go in SB). On Monday afternoon, find another place you can safely chill until late at night (restaurant? one that's open on the holiday?). But if you can't alter your days or hours, and can't take the train, consider cancelling. This is long enough before the holiday that the homeowners should be able to replace you easily.
posted by desert outpost at 6:01 PM on August 15, 2022
Where in LA that place is huge.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 7:00 PM on August 15, 2022
posted by St. Peepsburg at 7:00 PM on August 15, 2022
It won't take 7 hours. That's nuts. I've done this drive many times, both on PCH and the 101. If you're really unlucky, it'll take 3 hours. Unless by LA you mean OC, and by SB you mean Santa Ynez.
posted by drpynchon at 7:33 PM on August 15, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by drpynchon at 7:33 PM on August 15, 2022 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: I'm in Mid-city LA (Baldwin Hills/Culver City area). Normally, it wouldn't take more than 3 hours. Labor Day changes things. I am contemplating cancelling tomorrow.
posted by parkerposey at 7:41 PM on August 15, 2022
posted by parkerposey at 7:41 PM on August 15, 2022
Longtime Angeleno here. It won't take 7 hours! It just won't. It might take a solid 3.
Leaving at 9 or 10am is exactly the way to play this. Make it 9 and get up there and treat yourself to lunch or a nice walk or an extra-long sit with coffee on a bench or whatever.
On Monday, leaving at noon is fine -- again, it might take 3 hours -- but just hit the road the moment you're done working, with no dawdling.
Use Waze both ways for everything aside from the Ventura to Santa Barbara section, where there aren't really any options. Get your podcast or tunes set up, have your water and a snack, and just pretend you're driving to the Bay Area. Meaning, you've done long drives before and you'll do them again, and this won't even be that long. So keep yourself from thinking "This should only be taking me 2 hours!!!" which will just drive you crazy. You got this.
posted by BlahLaLa at 8:17 PM on August 15, 2022 [7 favorites]
Leaving at 9 or 10am is exactly the way to play this. Make it 9 and get up there and treat yourself to lunch or a nice walk or an extra-long sit with coffee on a bench or whatever.
On Monday, leaving at noon is fine -- again, it might take 3 hours -- but just hit the road the moment you're done working, with no dawdling.
Use Waze both ways for everything aside from the Ventura to Santa Barbara section, where there aren't really any options. Get your podcast or tunes set up, have your water and a snack, and just pretend you're driving to the Bay Area. Meaning, you've done long drives before and you'll do them again, and this won't even be that long. So keep yourself from thinking "This should only be taking me 2 hours!!!" which will just drive you crazy. You got this.
posted by BlahLaLa at 8:17 PM on August 15, 2022 [7 favorites]
I did this drive last week and it took 3 hours or so with some annoying traffic. No way it takes 7 hours. There are enough freeways (210/126) to bypass truly horrific traffic if it happens.
posted by escher at 8:45 PM on August 15, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by escher at 8:45 PM on August 15, 2022 [1 favorite]
Google has data on this. The browser version lets you punch in "leave now", "depart at", or "arrive by" times/dates, and you can step thru in 15 minute increments to see how they predict it changes. Looks like the worst is 2pm at 3hrs 30mins. Looks under 2hrs on either side of that time.
Similarly, for returning Monday, but peak worst is more like 4pm.
Perhaps arrange a phone call with an old (or new) friend and the drive'll be too short!
posted by at at 4:56 AM on August 16, 2022
Similarly, for returning Monday, but peak worst is more like 4pm.
Perhaps arrange a phone call with an old (or new) friend and the drive'll be too short!
posted by at at 4:56 AM on August 16, 2022
Best answer: FWIW, Google’s estimated times for long drives are always a bit optimistic (and I’m not sure whether they take into account Labor Day traffic).
posted by mekily at 5:13 AM on August 16, 2022
posted by mekily at 5:13 AM on August 16, 2022
Best answer: I drive Santa Barbara ↔︎ Pasadena fairly often.
I can't imagine your route taking 7 hours under any circumstances, unless you have the severe misfortune of being on a highway close to where an accident happens but too far from an exit ramp to get off the highway before more cars show up behind you and trap you. (That's happened to me, but only a couple of times in years of driving around there, so it's IMHO it's a pretty low probability event.)
First thing to note: right now, there is considerable highway construction on the 101 between Ventura and Carpenteria. There is always some slowing in that area in both directions right now. The construction itself doesn't show up in Google maps, although Google's estimated travel times probably takes it into account. The level of slowing on a good day is not bad, but in moderate traffic, it gets down to stop-and-go traffic, particularly in the Northbound direction getting close to Montecito.
On a Friday before a regular non-holiday weekend, leaving in the 10am range would be basically optimal for the Pasadena → Santa Barbara direction and would take me 2 - 2.5 hours consistently, taking the route 210 → 128 → 23 → 101 and taking into account the construction.
I've stopped driving the (straighter) 210 → 134 → 101 path even though it would be 10-15 min shorter because after many years of driving it, I've found that it is simply unpredictable whether an accident will happen somewhere between Glendale and Thousand Oaks. The area around the 134-5 and 101-405 is in my mind basically a Bermuda Triangle of traffic and I avoid it if at all possible. All too often I've left Pasadena when Google was showing green all the way, and by the time I got near the 405, an accident cropped up.
I would personally dread driving up the 405 to the 101 from Culver City/Baldwin Hills on even a good day, but then, I've grown hypersensitive to any slowdowns, and other people might not react the same way (especially for a one-off drive like this). But, if it were me, I would prioritize an alternate route.
I would probably try the 10 → 1 → Malibu Canyon Road → 101; it's a bit slow going, but it may not be jammed up like the 405/101 might be. If the highways start to look like shit, I might take the 1 all the way to its intersection with the 101 in Oxnard: it'll be much slower than other routes, but probably free of complete blockage. That route might take 3 -3.5 hrs total to get to Santa Barbara.
If the 405 is not all red when leaving, but the 101 looks gummed up, I might take the 405 all the way to the 118, and then go 118 → 23 → 101. It's an extra distance, but traffic on the 118 is usually lighter than the other highways, and usually is free of accidents.
The consistent areas of slowing are: the 134-101-405 area I mentioned above, then the 101 in the areas of Thousand Oaks, then Camarillo, then Ventura, then the construction before Montecito. So, those are the places where I would prepare for finding alternate routes.
I always check Google maps before leaving, to see where the traffic is at that moment and try to predict where it might get worse 1 - 2 hours into the drive. So, for example, if an area is yellow, I'll zoom in and see if there is an accident ahead of it, because it'll be red by the time I get there, and that's a place to avoid.
On a Monday, the traffic from Santa Barbara to the LA area is normally best in the middle of the day. Beware that starting around 3pm everywhere, things get loaded up due to people leaving work early or picking up kids or whatever, so I would again avoid ending up in the 134-101-105 region around that time and until past 6pm, when things lighten up again. So on a normal Monday, I would expect leaving Santa Barbara around noon would be doable but slightly risky, but 10am would be better. After a holiday weekend, there will be more traffic on the 101 coming from above Santa Barbara (from people vacationing up the coast or coming from the Bay Area), so it's going to be loaded and harder to predict.
posted by StrawberryPie at 9:11 AM on August 16, 2022 [3 favorites]
I can't imagine your route taking 7 hours under any circumstances, unless you have the severe misfortune of being on a highway close to where an accident happens but too far from an exit ramp to get off the highway before more cars show up behind you and trap you. (That's happened to me, but only a couple of times in years of driving around there, so it's IMHO it's a pretty low probability event.)
First thing to note: right now, there is considerable highway construction on the 101 between Ventura and Carpenteria. There is always some slowing in that area in both directions right now. The construction itself doesn't show up in Google maps, although Google's estimated travel times probably takes it into account. The level of slowing on a good day is not bad, but in moderate traffic, it gets down to stop-and-go traffic, particularly in the Northbound direction getting close to Montecito.
On a Friday before a regular non-holiday weekend, leaving in the 10am range would be basically optimal for the Pasadena → Santa Barbara direction and would take me 2 - 2.5 hours consistently, taking the route 210 → 128 → 23 → 101 and taking into account the construction.
I've stopped driving the (straighter) 210 → 134 → 101 path even though it would be 10-15 min shorter because after many years of driving it, I've found that it is simply unpredictable whether an accident will happen somewhere between Glendale and Thousand Oaks. The area around the 134-5 and 101-405 is in my mind basically a Bermuda Triangle of traffic and I avoid it if at all possible. All too often I've left Pasadena when Google was showing green all the way, and by the time I got near the 405, an accident cropped up.
I would personally dread driving up the 405 to the 101 from Culver City/Baldwin Hills on even a good day, but then, I've grown hypersensitive to any slowdowns, and other people might not react the same way (especially for a one-off drive like this). But, if it were me, I would prioritize an alternate route.
I would probably try the 10 → 1 → Malibu Canyon Road → 101; it's a bit slow going, but it may not be jammed up like the 405/101 might be. If the highways start to look like shit, I might take the 1 all the way to its intersection with the 101 in Oxnard: it'll be much slower than other routes, but probably free of complete blockage. That route might take 3 -3.5 hrs total to get to Santa Barbara.
If the 405 is not all red when leaving, but the 101 looks gummed up, I might take the 405 all the way to the 118, and then go 118 → 23 → 101. It's an extra distance, but traffic on the 118 is usually lighter than the other highways, and usually is free of accidents.
The consistent areas of slowing are: the 134-101-405 area I mentioned above, then the 101 in the areas of Thousand Oaks, then Camarillo, then Ventura, then the construction before Montecito. So, those are the places where I would prepare for finding alternate routes.
I always check Google maps before leaving, to see where the traffic is at that moment and try to predict where it might get worse 1 - 2 hours into the drive. So, for example, if an area is yellow, I'll zoom in and see if there is an accident ahead of it, because it'll be red by the time I get there, and that's a place to avoid.
On a Monday, the traffic from Santa Barbara to the LA area is normally best in the middle of the day. Beware that starting around 3pm everywhere, things get loaded up due to people leaving work early or picking up kids or whatever, so I would again avoid ending up in the 134-101-105 region around that time and until past 6pm, when things lighten up again. So on a normal Monday, I would expect leaving Santa Barbara around noon would be doable but slightly risky, but 10am would be better. After a holiday weekend, there will be more traffic on the 101 coming from above Santa Barbara (from people vacationing up the coast or coming from the Bay Area), so it's going to be loaded and harder to predict.
posted by StrawberryPie at 9:11 AM on August 16, 2022 [3 favorites]
« Older Is there a home for old (60s-70s) slides of... | Is there a reason for my boss's Slack behavior? Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by pinochiette at 5:42 PM on August 15, 2022 [1 favorite]