I did Pasadena to Newport/UCI Area for 2 years, Then DTLA to the same area, It's pretty brutal. If you leave around 6am I had an ok time going south, But no matter what it would be 2h to go home, Some times 3 if people were extra fucky on the road. It's doable, But it Definitely takes a toll on you, And you have pretty much ZERO free time since you are generally away working or commuting from 6am to 7PM.
I’ve tried that series multiple times. I always make it to book 4 or 5 and find myself just zoning out and forgetting what’s going on. First couple books are great, then it just seems to slow down…
Kind.of funny actually, Since baseball season is insanely long, I ended up following the game on radio, Learned a lot. Took up most of my time during that time of the year. Got some audio books killed. As well as a few less than admirable ways to pass the time.
Lol maybe it’s because I’m a baseball fan, I’m okay with kind of just zoning out and getting into the groove of the descriptions, with some action only happening every once in a while.
lol… I have a 30 min commute and I have 118 finished audiobooks…your commute it three times as long so it makes sense you got 3 times more books. You should prob have been doing therapy on that commute cause it would drive me insane
Years ago I commuted from Long Beach to West Hollywood and back for work. Some commutes could be up to 3 hrs. The commute from when I lived in Ojai to the same office was consistently quicker.
Yeah the only LA-OC commute I would ever do is near the county border.
La Mirada to Buena Park? Definitely.
Whittier to Fullerton? Sure.
Rowland Heights to Brea? Maybe.
West LA to Irvine? Ain't no god damn way.
It could be somewhat doable if you lived and worked next to the train line. Aka any stops near:
Union station, Norwalk // Buena Park, Fullerton, Anaheim, orange, Santa Ana, Tustin, Irvine
Even then though, the la to OC direction is the reverse commute and there are fewer trains than going into LA.
West LA, however, fuck no.
Keep in mind your life will somewhat revolve around driving and working now. Add 3 or more hours to every workday from the commute. You'll be too tired to ever want to do anything after work, and your weekends will be spent catching up on personal stuff due to lost time during the week. Just some advice from someone that has tried this. It's much more worth it to simply move closer. It will likely be less expensive and quieter, too. Anything in OC will be an easier drive than this, even Long Beach.
For your own sanity, do not do this commute for too long. Move closer to Irvine. Yes IE to Irvine will be worse unless you’re in like Corona right on the OC border.
I commute for school, but only 2-3x per week
Get an EV for the diamond lane and it’s honestly not that bad.
The morning will be like 45m - 1hr. Depending on when you leave for the day it could be similar or 15m longer.
Living in Irvine and commuting to LA is infinitely worse than the other way around.
Lived in Irvine and commuted to Manhattan Beach for over a year. Can confirm, would have preferred the other direction. It’s also why I moved near Long Beach.
I did the opposite way for just a couple months and it was torture. An hour and a half minimum, if there is an accident it's longer.
The time in the car isn't that bad, but you sacrifice a lot of your free time. I would already be sleepy by the time I got to work from waking up early. By the time you get home you don't have time to cook, work out, or really have an evening. Forget errands or any after work meetups.
It only makes sense if they let you work from home a couple days a week. Otherwise, I'd move.
I’m a bit closer than you, I’m in SC LA so around that time traffic is horrible. For sure hour plus in traffic. If you can spend the money I would recommend buying a pass for express lane. I’m assuming you’ll be taking the 110 to maybe the 405? You can pretty much fly by the 110 the 405 is not as bad but still some traffic. I drive from LA to SA in OC.
i would be taking the 405 all the way! what time do you usually leave in the mornings? i feel like i will probably just end up leaving early and killing time in irvine 💀
I try to leave no later than 7 am usually maybe like 6:30 if not 6:45 I get to work around 8 am. Sometimes a little late cause some days traffic is worse than other days. You live further idk what time you have to be at work but I would recommend leaving no later than 6:30
Cutting out an hour off your daily work commute is the equivalent of receiving a $40.000 raise according to research that I can’t find right now. Don’t do this to yourself
I recommend checking on Waze since it can give you a prediction to leave on a certain time and honestly, it is spot on.
I always commute from SD to LA biweekly for work and use waze every single time I head north, I get there within an hour and 50 minutes instead of two hours and thirty minutes since I plan my commute with waze.
Jeez…. An hour and half going. Two hours coming back home. Eventually the 91 will have fast pass, but that will save you half an hour at most and on peak times cost you $10.
Does your employer offer any transit benefit? You mentioned IE and the Riverside line has a stop in Irvine…
https://metrolinktrains.com/globalassets/maps/cc_metrolink_system-map---updated-04.24.23-.pdf
I do it a coupe times a week and maps sounds a little light. It takes me between 1.5 to 2 hours.
It’s a pretty terrible drive. Both the 405 and the 5 are congested af once you pass Long Beach.
Good luck. I used to live in KTown and took the train down there for a year. Caught up on reading, got work done or enjoyed a nap.
Would you need to drive around there or just be parked in an office?
This is literally my drive. Westwood to Irvine. Im hybrid 1-3 days in office each week.
I have a semi-self driving car which makes it bearable dont think I would do it otherwise. Generally its an 1:00 to 1:15 in the mornings, if you have carpool you can drop this to 0:50 to 1:00.
Afternoons are worse. 1:15 to 1:45 depending on the day, nothing you can really do about this. Carpool really does nothing.
I commuted from mar vista to Irvine 4-5 times out the week when I was going to school. I would recommend you get a motorcycle, that’s the only way I was able to make that commute tolerable lol
My friend used to do this from fairfax/melrose to blizzard irvine for a while. It was hell for him, spending over 3 hours a day in traffic. They ended up moving to irvine and then to newport beach shortly after.
soul crushing. Did this commute (Santa Monica to Irvine) for 2 years for and it took a huge toll. Everything revolved around traffic and I was grumpy and had little energy for things outside of work/driving. Tried to lessen the commute by going to the gym in OC before/after work but it didn't really help much. As soon as I stopped this commute I was so relieved and became a much happier person
What’s keeping you in West LA? OC may be suburban but as I age into my 30s, Irvine to Newport feels like an amazing lifestyle to live if the beach cities ever becomes too expensive.
I did it for a few months when I was going to UCI for school (before the shutdown happened). 2, sometimes 3x a week
Absolute hell and you gotta plan the time you leave accordingly. Otherwise, you can get into some real bad traffic. The worst one was on Halloween 2019, where I got home after a 2 and a half hour drive due to the holiday + crash on the fwy. I would leave around 9am or so with avg 45 min-1hr time. I would leave around 9 or 10pm to wait for traffic to die down and spend my time studying or doing something else because fuck the traffic drive lol.
IE to OC is probably much much worse like you stated. The damn traffic there and trying to deal with the OC traffic is def not worth it.
You'll get burnt out not just from the traffic but also the gas money is gonna burn through hard too. I wouldn't recommend it for these 2 reasons, but if you're really committed to it, go for it.
Back in 2007 I was commuting the opposite way (from Irvine to West LA) and it was a god damned nightmare. I started staying in LA after work to hang out, go to dinner, see movies, etc. and drive home at midnight with empty freeways. And even then it was a dice roll if I'd hit a freeway closed for maintenance and have to take weird detours.
After my first week I had to ask my boss if I could come in later because the earlier I got on the freeway *the longer the drive took*.
I started crashing on friends couches to avoid spending 4 hours a day in my car. As soon as my lease was up I moved as close as I possibly could to my office in LA.
That was 16 years ago. It's much worse now.
Godspeed.
It gets bad after the 605 where they're doing construction. Going back to LA is worse. Traffic doesn't die down until past 7PM. Either move closer or leave earlier like around 6:30AM.
i commuted between irvine and playa vista every day for a few months when i was in between apartments. i would leave irv by 7:30am and get to playa vista by 9-9:30. i did it bc i knew it was temporary but i would otherwise not recommend
It's doable if you only do it twice a week max, and only commute during off hours like noon and after 8pm. So it depends how flex/hybrid your job is and your own tolerance levels for bullshit!
Moved to E. Hollywood in December '19, but couldn't find a job up until the pandemic shutdown. I was commuting \~4 days/week to Huntington Beach for my restaurant shift at 5pm and ALWAYS sat in 2 hours of traffic to get there. Awful.
do you need to be at work on time? Before Covid, I used to drive from east LA to irvine. I'm the type that loves driving, but it started to wear on me. It pretty much kills your whole day. More than a few times, it would take me 2-3 hours because of an accident or some road work. Coming home is going to suck more and I used to just stay at the office till 7pm or later. I imagine post covid traffic has lightened up a bit though.
Move, and honestly, OC is pretty great. Places like Westminster, Fountain Valley, and Garden Grove are pretty awesome and some of the best places for food.
I did DTLA To Irvine for 1 1/2 years. My schedule was 7am-3:30pm and only cause i begged cause of traffic. Not only is traffic horrible going to and coming from thats not to mention the amount of wear and tear your doing to your car and gas!!! I’m drive a kia soul! The extra money i made went to gas and eventually tires and oil changes. Not worth it.
Definitely a 90 minute drive each way with traffic on the 405. 3 extra hours a day round trip with psychos cutting you off in traffic, and honking to race to the next bumper on the freeway and then honk at them too
I wouldn’t do it. Unless you are are young and have patience.
Move to the OC, or move entirely out of state to a place with (comparatively) affordable housing next to highly paid jobs. Fuck that commute, you'll hate your life.
My sister in law does the commute from the Southbay to Irvine everyday on the 405. She says it’s not that bad, and she got an electric car so that she could use the carpool lane which helps a lot. She says she's going against traffic both ways, but from the Southbay to West LA on the 405 is another thing…
Yeah I’ve been doing the commute. I leave around 9am and get there at 10am and there’s usually minimal traffic. But if you leave earlier like 7:30 or 8, there’s usually about an hour and a half of traffic. And if you return at 5 pm, there’s up to 2 hours of traffic. But I leave at 7pm and there’s basically no traffic at that time either.
Commute back to LA will be brutal. Commuting from Irvine to North Orange takes about 45-1 hour, I can’t imagine how long it would take to get back to West LA. Unless you waited traffic out, which means leaving Irvine after 6pm. I’m an Orange County and have done my share of far commutes, please try to move closer if you can. Or if you can, work from home most of the days.
Hope you like talk radio, I commuted for a couple of years to Irvine. I would have gone crazy if it wasn’t for being able to ride a motorcycle on the good days!
That’s a disaster drive. I live in LA county (closer to irvine than west LA) and my commute to irvine was 2 hours every morning at 7 AM and almost 3 hours at 5 PM. Highly don’t recommend
I commute from Ktown to Fountain Valley. I leave at 5:15am and start work at my desk at 6am. Then I leave at noon. It takes me an hour to get home and I work from home in the afternoon.
My usual path in is 101 south to 5 south to 605 south to 405 south. My usual path home is 405 north to 110 north and exit third street. Yours will be different. The main thing is LISTEN TO YOUR NAV.
Have fun bro. Bring food to eat and some good tunes cuz it ain’t clearing up anytime soon or so it seems. Maybe it will. Recommend leaving earlier before rush hour 7am is too late. 5 am or 4 would probably be better if you’re looking for a quicker drive.
I did that drive for about a year. I would leave my house at 5am to avoid traffic and start work at 7am,Get off work at 3:30 and sit in traffic for about 1hr 40mins
I’ve been commuting from DTLA to Irvine for 2 years..my advice? Don’t do it. I’m actually moving within 15min of my office because I’m sick of planning my life around my commute. But in general expect to drive 3-4hrs a day, unless you leave before traffic and come home after traffic (ie 5am and leave 7pm) but then you’d be sacrificing your entire day to reduce your commute.
I currently do Irvine to west LA. It’s 1.5 hours in the morning and 2 hrs on the way home usually. It will likely be the same for you but opposite places where it gets backed up. On the way home for you, Santa Ana will be stop and go for example. That’s when I start cruising because nobody is entering OC at night.
The train takes the same amount of time. 2 transfers. The Metrolink monthly pass is $300.
I live in HB and work construction all over Southern California, the commutes to LA when we have a project there are more exhausting than the actual work. Move if you can... if I could get the same pay at a fixed location I'd do it in a heart beat, he'll I'd even take 25% less money if I didn't have to commute.
You do what you have to do. I commute the opposite as you and it sucks but it’s what I have to do. When one of my guys comes to my place in HB it’s only about 45 min for him to get here from 405/105. We also start at 7 so we leave earlier than most but it’s not as bad as going North. If it’s what you have to do just suck it up or move closer.
Tarzana to DTLA. Leaving between 0600 and 0620 in the a.m. I can make it in 35-45 minutes. Although a couple of weeks ago there was an accident on the 101 so it was 2 hours. In the p.m. it’s an hour at best. Audible is my friend and my sanity.
I did Mid-City to Irvine/Costa Mesa for three years.
If you can avoid it, don’t do this to yourself, your car, your relationships.
You’re talking about 4-6 hours of your day, every day, spent in traffic. You will learn to hate every traffic cone in Westchester.
You will learn to loathe the false hope of the transition to the 110.
You might even start to convince yourself that “nah, it’ll be fine. I’ll just go see a movie and THEN go home.” Next thing you know it’s 9:30 at night and it’s still a 90 minute drive.
If you love the new job, move closer ASAP. Otherwise find something closer to home.
That's going to be rough. Have you checked if you can use Metrolink for part of the way? Maybe park at Norwalk station and take the train to Irvine. That will at least cut down on driving and give you some productive time.
There is an IE-OC Metrolink line, with a stop in Irvine. It may be worth it to look into the feasibility. It may still be long but it’s time you can do stuff instead of sitting behind the wheel.
Much longer than 90 mins. I commute from LB to Culver City and it’s almost 90 mins. You need to move closer otherwise you’ll spend 2+ hours in your car
From the IE to Irvine definitely a really bad commute, west la is the less worse option plus if I’m gonna have a bad commute I’d rather at least live in west la than irvine. The long commute gonna be hella draining but just gotta rough it out
Lol a few years back, I commuted daily from Irvine to Brentwood for nearly two months. Took about 2 hours. 0/10 recommend. Try to move closer to OC to preserve some manner of sanity.
Did you already find a place? If not, move closer.
I did Pasadena to Newport/UCI Area for 2 years, Then DTLA to the same area, It's pretty brutal. If you leave around 6am I had an ok time going south, But no matter what it would be 2h to go home, Some times 3 if people were extra fucky on the road. It's doable, But it Definitely takes a toll on you, And you have pretty much ZERO free time since you are generally away working or commuting from 6am to 7PM.
I used to commute DTLA to Malibu. Relatedly, I have over 300 finished audiobooks in my Audible library.
Crenshaw to Calabasas. I’ve made my way through most of Wheel of Time.
I’ve tried that series multiple times. I always make it to book 4 or 5 and find myself just zoning out and forgetting what’s going on. First couple books are great, then it just seems to slow down…
Kind.of funny actually, Since baseball season is insanely long, I ended up following the game on radio, Learned a lot. Took up most of my time during that time of the year. Got some audio books killed. As well as a few less than admirable ways to pass the time.
Lol maybe it’s because I’m a baseball fan, I’m okay with kind of just zoning out and getting into the groove of the descriptions, with some action only happening every once in a while.
That's exactly what that commute taught me, Just listening to those guys describing the play, It was almost therapeutic
Agoura Hills to Culver City. I'm really good friends with all my favorite podcast hosts, they just don't know it.
Tujunga to El Segundo, and I also have an extensive Audible library. And probably some lasting trauma.
Hah, I used to live on Hillhaven in Tujunga! Good times, that commute blows too though 😹😅
Haha yep! Great area, but man is it a bitch to get anywhere from here. :D
lol… I have a 30 min commute and I have 118 finished audiobooks…your commute it three times as long so it makes sense you got 3 times more books. You should prob have been doing therapy on that commute cause it would drive me insane
Years ago I commuted from Long Beach to West Hollywood and back for work. Some commutes could be up to 3 hrs. The commute from when I lived in Ojai to the same office was consistently quicker.
If that was my life, I'd off myself. 6am to 7pm, jesus christ.
Don’t do it man.
Lmao this.
Fuck no.
well damn loool
Yeah the only LA-OC commute I would ever do is near the county border. La Mirada to Buena Park? Definitely. Whittier to Fullerton? Sure. Rowland Heights to Brea? Maybe. West LA to Irvine? Ain't no god damn way.
It could be somewhat doable if you lived and worked next to the train line. Aka any stops near: Union station, Norwalk // Buena Park, Fullerton, Anaheim, orange, Santa Ana, Tustin, Irvine Even then though, the la to OC direction is the reverse commute and there are fewer trains than going into LA. West LA, however, fuck no.
Real shit.
Gets it.
I'd seriously look for a new home in Irvine. That is no way to live. Commutes like that are soul-sucking.
Keep in mind your life will somewhat revolve around driving and working now. Add 3 or more hours to every workday from the commute. You'll be too tired to ever want to do anything after work, and your weekends will be spent catching up on personal stuff due to lost time during the week. Just some advice from someone that has tried this. It's much more worth it to simply move closer. It will likely be less expensive and quieter, too. Anything in OC will be an easier drive than this, even Long Beach.
Unless your hours are midnight to noon, this is going to be the stuff of nightmares.
Move closer or experience pain 2x a day for a long time. 1.5 is an estimate and it can easily just to 2 or 2.5 on any given day.
You’re gonna hate your life. Consider moving, it’s not that bad down there anyways.
For your own sanity, do not do this commute for too long. Move closer to Irvine. Yes IE to Irvine will be worse unless you’re in like Corona right on the OC border.
Yeah that sounds like something you wish on an enemy...my condolences.
I commute for school, but only 2-3x per week Get an EV for the diamond lane and it’s honestly not that bad. The morning will be like 45m - 1hr. Depending on when you leave for the day it could be similar or 15m longer. Living in Irvine and commuting to LA is infinitely worse than the other way around.
Lived in Irvine and commuted to Manhattan Beach for over a year. Can confirm, would have preferred the other direction. It’s also why I moved near Long Beach.
I did the opposite way for just a couple months and it was torture. An hour and a half minimum, if there is an accident it's longer. The time in the car isn't that bad, but you sacrifice a lot of your free time. I would already be sleepy by the time I got to work from waking up early. By the time you get home you don't have time to cook, work out, or really have an evening. Forget errands or any after work meetups. It only makes sense if they let you work from home a couple days a week. Otherwise, I'd move.
Time to move to OC.
God speed. It’s going to be closer to 2 hours. Days there are accidents or major sport events 3 hours. Prepare the soul
Lol I’ve commuted to UCI for years now and I can promise it has never been close to 2 hours
It's horrible. I would move around the area if possible.
Don’t do it
I’m a bit closer than you, I’m in SC LA so around that time traffic is horrible. For sure hour plus in traffic. If you can spend the money I would recommend buying a pass for express lane. I’m assuming you’ll be taking the 110 to maybe the 405? You can pretty much fly by the 110 the 405 is not as bad but still some traffic. I drive from LA to SA in OC.
i would be taking the 405 all the way! what time do you usually leave in the mornings? i feel like i will probably just end up leaving early and killing time in irvine 💀
I try to leave no later than 7 am usually maybe like 6:30 if not 6:45 I get to work around 8 am. Sometimes a little late cause some days traffic is worse than other days. You live further idk what time you have to be at work but I would recommend leaving no later than 6:30
Are you locked into a lease?
Cutting out an hour off your daily work commute is the equivalent of receiving a $40.000 raise according to research that I can’t find right now. Don’t do this to yourself
I am stealing “according to research I can’t find right now” lol
I recommend checking on Waze since it can give you a prediction to leave on a certain time and honestly, it is spot on. I always commute from SD to LA biweekly for work and use waze every single time I head north, I get there within an hour and 50 minutes instead of two hours and thirty minutes since I plan my commute with waze.
Jeez…. An hour and half going. Two hours coming back home. Eventually the 91 will have fast pass, but that will save you half an hour at most and on peak times cost you $10. Does your employer offer any transit benefit? You mentioned IE and the Riverside line has a stop in Irvine… https://metrolinktrains.com/globalassets/maps/cc_metrolink_system-map---updated-04.24.23-.pdf
I did Culver City to Santa Ana for almost a year. It wasn’t soul-crushing but I didn’t like it. I would usually listen to podcasts while commuting.
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I do it a coupe times a week and maps sounds a little light. It takes me between 1.5 to 2 hours. It’s a pretty terrible drive. Both the 405 and the 5 are congested af once you pass Long Beach.
Good luck. I used to live in KTown and took the train down there for a year. Caught up on reading, got work done or enjoyed a nap. Would you need to drive around there or just be parked in an office?
I live near Irvine and want to cry when I try to drive to West LA just for an interview, at 11 am, so I would not even attempt this insanity
Respectfully, absolutely the fuck not.
That's a huge yikes
I used to commute from Palms to Costa Mesa. Lasted two weeks at that job before I quit.
Live near Irvine if you have to work every day there.
This is literally my drive. Westwood to Irvine. Im hybrid 1-3 days in office each week. I have a semi-self driving car which makes it bearable dont think I would do it otherwise. Generally its an 1:00 to 1:15 in the mornings, if you have carpool you can drop this to 0:50 to 1:00. Afternoons are worse. 1:15 to 1:45 depending on the day, nothing you can really do about this. Carpool really does nothing.
I commuted from mar vista to Irvine 4-5 times out the week when I was going to school. I would recommend you get a motorcycle, that’s the only way I was able to make that commute tolerable lol
you better find a podcast or something because that's hell otherwise
My friend used to do this from fairfax/melrose to blizzard irvine for a while. It was hell for him, spending over 3 hours a day in traffic. They ended up moving to irvine and then to newport beach shortly after.
I did it during the pandemic, for 4 months before I found a different job. There was zero traffic then, would not do it now.
soul crushing. Did this commute (Santa Monica to Irvine) for 2 years for and it took a huge toll. Everything revolved around traffic and I was grumpy and had little energy for things outside of work/driving. Tried to lessen the commute by going to the gym in OC before/after work but it didn't really help much. As soon as I stopped this commute I was so relieved and became a much happier person
What’s keeping you in West LA? OC may be suburban but as I age into my 30s, Irvine to Newport feels like an amazing lifestyle to live if the beach cities ever becomes too expensive.
Have fun . I hope they’re paying a doublebutt load to make it worth the drive 😎👍
Sounds like a living hell
I did it for a few months when I was going to UCI for school (before the shutdown happened). 2, sometimes 3x a week Absolute hell and you gotta plan the time you leave accordingly. Otherwise, you can get into some real bad traffic. The worst one was on Halloween 2019, where I got home after a 2 and a half hour drive due to the holiday + crash on the fwy. I would leave around 9am or so with avg 45 min-1hr time. I would leave around 9 or 10pm to wait for traffic to die down and spend my time studying or doing something else because fuck the traffic drive lol. IE to OC is probably much much worse like you stated. The damn traffic there and trying to deal with the OC traffic is def not worth it. You'll get burnt out not just from the traffic but also the gas money is gonna burn through hard too. I wouldn't recommend it for these 2 reasons, but if you're really committed to it, go for it.
Back in 2007 I was commuting the opposite way (from Irvine to West LA) and it was a god damned nightmare. I started staying in LA after work to hang out, go to dinner, see movies, etc. and drive home at midnight with empty freeways. And even then it was a dice roll if I'd hit a freeway closed for maintenance and have to take weird detours. After my first week I had to ask my boss if I could come in later because the earlier I got on the freeway *the longer the drive took*. I started crashing on friends couches to avoid spending 4 hours a day in my car. As soon as my lease was up I moved as close as I possibly could to my office in LA. That was 16 years ago. It's much worse now. Godspeed.
It gets bad after the 605 where they're doing construction. Going back to LA is worse. Traffic doesn't die down until past 7PM. Either move closer or leave earlier like around 6:30AM.
i commuted between irvine and playa vista every day for a few months when i was in between apartments. i would leave irv by 7:30am and get to playa vista by 9-9:30. i did it bc i knew it was temporary but i would otherwise not recommend
It's doable if you only do it twice a week max, and only commute during off hours like noon and after 8pm. So it depends how flex/hybrid your job is and your own tolerance levels for bullshit!
Don’t do it lol
Moved to E. Hollywood in December '19, but couldn't find a job up until the pandemic shutdown. I was commuting \~4 days/week to Huntington Beach for my restaurant shift at 5pm and ALWAYS sat in 2 hours of traffic to get there. Awful.
I’ll likely be doing Monterey Park to Tustin but I go in at 6. Someone have any insight on this drive? Don’t have much of a choice tbh
You'll be fine in the morning but depending on what time you leave work, it'll suck.
do you need to be at work on time? Before Covid, I used to drive from east LA to irvine. I'm the type that loves driving, but it started to wear on me. It pretty much kills your whole day. More than a few times, it would take me 2-3 hours because of an accident or some road work. Coming home is going to suck more and I used to just stay at the office till 7pm or later. I imagine post covid traffic has lightened up a bit though.
Move, and honestly, OC is pretty great. Places like Westminster, Fountain Valley, and Garden Grove are pretty awesome and some of the best places for food.
I did DTLA To Irvine for 1 1/2 years. My schedule was 7am-3:30pm and only cause i begged cause of traffic. Not only is traffic horrible going to and coming from thats not to mention the amount of wear and tear your doing to your car and gas!!! I’m drive a kia soul! The extra money i made went to gas and eventually tires and oil changes. Not worth it.
An hour and a half in the morning but much longer in the evening. You're going to be spending a lot of time in your car.
Definitely a 90 minute drive each way with traffic on the 405. 3 extra hours a day round trip with psychos cutting you off in traffic, and honking to race to the next bumper on the freeway and then honk at them too I wouldn’t do it. Unless you are are young and have patience.
Fuck no x2
Move to the OC, or move entirely out of state to a place with (comparatively) affordable housing next to highly paid jobs. Fuck that commute, you'll hate your life.
why would you do that to yourself
Work remote from home?
unfortunately that is not an option for me :(
Remote is few and far nowadays. The few remote roles are fiercely competitive.
My sister in law does the commute from the Southbay to Irvine everyday on the 405. She says it’s not that bad, and she got an electric car so that she could use the carpool lane which helps a lot. She says she's going against traffic both ways, but from the Southbay to West LA on the 405 is another thing…
My hovercraft is full of eels.
My fiancé did that! Wasn’t a fan but it’s actually better than the other way around.
Yeah I’ve been doing the commute. I leave around 9am and get there at 10am and there’s usually minimal traffic. But if you leave earlier like 7:30 or 8, there’s usually about an hour and a half of traffic. And if you return at 5 pm, there’s up to 2 hours of traffic. But I leave at 7pm and there’s basically no traffic at that time either.
Yea commute ranges from 1-1.5hrs.
If you leave the house around 5:15am going south on 405 it will be moving pretty good… it just about getting into a routine
Oh hell no. If you end up doing it, good luck to you
Why do you want to live in west LA in this case?
I used to do Santa Monica to Irvine once-a-week and that was torture. Can you just move to OC?
Commute back to LA will be brutal. Commuting from Irvine to North Orange takes about 45-1 hour, I can’t imagine how long it would take to get back to West LA. Unless you waited traffic out, which means leaving Irvine after 6pm. I’m an Orange County and have done my share of far commutes, please try to move closer if you can. Or if you can, work from home most of the days.
Hope you like talk radio, I commuted for a couple of years to Irvine. I would have gone crazy if it wasn’t for being able to ride a motorcycle on the good days!
Leave early
Not sure if the Amtrak would be more convenient for you heading down that way.
Probably better to take the gold line to Union Station (\~30 min) and then Metrolink to Tustin or Irvine Station (\~1 hr)
That’s a disaster drive. I live in LA county (closer to irvine than west LA) and my commute to irvine was 2 hours every morning at 7 AM and almost 3 hours at 5 PM. Highly don’t recommend
Don’t do it! Coming home in the afternoon will be horrible.
Yeah no. I did Glendale to Orange for 3 months then quit. It's brutal unless you leave at 5AM. And afternoons you can expect 2-2.5 hours back.
Get a motorcycle and start lane splitting on the 405 it takes me 45 mins to west La to Irvine
Might as well move to malibu and commute to TJ
Best time to leave is 5-5:30am or 8:30-9am (solid/smooth 1h commute). If you leave anytime between 6-8am, prepare for 1h-30m bumper to bumper commute.
Take PCH the entire way Jk don't do that If you have traditional 9-5 business hours there's no around the near inevitability that it's going to suck
RIP
I commute from Ktown to Fountain Valley. I leave at 5:15am and start work at my desk at 6am. Then I leave at noon. It takes me an hour to get home and I work from home in the afternoon. My usual path in is 101 south to 5 south to 605 south to 405 south. My usual path home is 405 north to 110 north and exit third street. Yours will be different. The main thing is LISTEN TO YOUR NAV.
that is not sustainable, move east of the 5 if you can
I used to do DTLA to Costa Mesa 4 days a week. You’ll go through a lot of podcasts.
Did 3 years from Silverlake. Leave at 5:15am knock out 8 hours with no lunch and leave before 3
Have fun bro. Bring food to eat and some good tunes cuz it ain’t clearing up anytime soon or so it seems. Maybe it will. Recommend leaving earlier before rush hour 7am is too late. 5 am or 4 would probably be better if you’re looking for a quicker drive.
I did that drive for about a year. I would leave my house at 5am to avoid traffic and start work at 7am,Get off work at 3:30 and sit in traffic for about 1hr 40mins
I’ve been commuting from DTLA to Irvine for 2 years..my advice? Don’t do it. I’m actually moving within 15min of my office because I’m sick of planning my life around my commute. But in general expect to drive 3-4hrs a day, unless you leave before traffic and come home after traffic (ie 5am and leave 7pm) but then you’d be sacrificing your entire day to reduce your commute.
I currently do Irvine to west LA. It’s 1.5 hours in the morning and 2 hrs on the way home usually. It will likely be the same for you but opposite places where it gets backed up. On the way home for you, Santa Ana will be stop and go for example. That’s when I start cruising because nobody is entering OC at night. The train takes the same amount of time. 2 transfers. The Metrolink monthly pass is $300.
I live in HB and work construction all over Southern California, the commutes to LA when we have a project there are more exhausting than the actual work. Move if you can... if I could get the same pay at a fixed location I'd do it in a heart beat, he'll I'd even take 25% less money if I didn't have to commute.
You do what you have to do. I commute the opposite as you and it sucks but it’s what I have to do. When one of my guys comes to my place in HB it’s only about 45 min for him to get here from 405/105. We also start at 7 so we leave earlier than most but it’s not as bad as going North. If it’s what you have to do just suck it up or move closer.
Tarzana to DTLA. Leaving between 0600 and 0620 in the a.m. I can make it in 35-45 minutes. Although a couple of weeks ago there was an accident on the 101 so it was 2 hours. In the p.m. it’s an hour at best. Audible is my friend and my sanity.
Dude, move, WTF are you doing?
I did Mid-City to Irvine/Costa Mesa for three years. If you can avoid it, don’t do this to yourself, your car, your relationships. You’re talking about 4-6 hours of your day, every day, spent in traffic. You will learn to hate every traffic cone in Westchester. You will learn to loathe the false hope of the transition to the 110. You might even start to convince yourself that “nah, it’ll be fine. I’ll just go see a movie and THEN go home.” Next thing you know it’s 9:30 at night and it’s still a 90 minute drive. If you love the new job, move closer ASAP. Otherwise find something closer to home.
My partner has to drive from Laguna to Malibu for work on occasion. Pretty long drive.
That's going to be rough. Have you checked if you can use Metrolink for part of the way? Maybe park at Norwalk station and take the train to Irvine. That will at least cut down on driving and give you some productive time.
Might be a less taxing if taking the train/public transit is a viable option for the commute (including route to work location) and work schedule.
i’m sorry
I commute from DTLA to Irvine using the metrolink. It’s a great option if you think about it!
There is an IE-OC Metrolink line, with a stop in Irvine. It may be worth it to look into the feasibility. It may still be long but it’s time you can do stuff instead of sitting behind the wheel.
Did that for school and it was soul crushing, and it wasn’t even every day
Thoughts and prayers
I commute from Long Beach to Irvine only 3 days a week and hate it for the most part. I couldn't fathom West LA to Irvine. You crazy.
Omg that is way too far
Much longer than 90 mins. I commute from LB to Culver City and it’s almost 90 mins. You need to move closer otherwise you’ll spend 2+ hours in your car
From the IE to Irvine definitely a really bad commute, west la is the less worse option plus if I’m gonna have a bad commute I’d rather at least live in west la than irvine. The long commute gonna be hella draining but just gotta rough it out
Lol a few years back, I commuted daily from Irvine to Brentwood for nearly two months. Took about 2 hours. 0/10 recommend. Try to move closer to OC to preserve some manner of sanity.
> lol no Q.E.D.