7/23    I'm spending my first vacation in LA and I've already spent 1/2 of
        my time in traffic. WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE 405 AND SANTA MONICA?
        The whole place is a parking lot. I can't even go above 10MPH
        and I need to queue 20 mins on the surface before I can even get onto
        the fucking freeway. Fucking vacation this is turning out.
        \_ The 405 is for going through LA on the way to somewhere else.
           I spent a weekend in LA 4th of July weekend and spent almost no
           time in traffic, seeing all the neighborhoods around Santa
           Monica.  Use street traffic.
        \_ That's what you get for coming to LA, sorry. Living here, I don't
           like it any more than you do.
        \_ Use http://sigalert.com to see when stuff is free.  Don't drive on the
           405 or 10 in general unles syou know what you're doing.  Otherwise
           you can take Olympic everywhere.
           \_ I HATE that section of the 405 between the 10 and 101.  It's
              pretty much never good except late at night.
              \_ It's pretty good in the morning going from the 10 to the
                 101. I used to take that stretch from UCLA to Granada
                 Hills area every morning and traffic was great. Going
                 towards the 10 sucked, though.
        \_ Where are you trying to get to/from? As previous person noted,
           stay off the freeways unless you have to be on them.
           \_ Getty, Long Beach, Monterey Park, etc. I go wherever my GPS
              tells me to go, and I can tell you that my $1200 GPS upgrade
              doesn't tell me how to avoid traffic. I've spent 1/3 of my
              life in my car, and when I get out, it is hot and humid.
              I don't know WHY you guys live in LA, but I know I'm never
              gonna move here. I feel sorry for you bozos in LA.
              \_ Remember that when you vote on a transit bond after
                 you come home.
              \_ Try the Huntington Library if you have time.  It's
                 really nice.  The place is a really cool botanic
                 garden with some buildings housing rare books,
                 including a Gutenburg bible (first printed book,
                 at least in the west).
              \_ It has been humid, but that is not typical. FWIW, I
                 really like LA. I've said this before, but LA is a
                 terrible place to visit and a nice place to live. In many
                 ways I find the Bay Area the opposite (nice place to
                 visit and crummy place to live) although I do like the
                 Bay Area.
        \_ As someone who lives down here now, some words of advice:
           1) You're on vacation, not at work.   You can afford to avoid
              traffic hour.  If you vacationed in San Francisco, would you
              fight with 880-S traffic going to San Jose in the morning?
              \_ When is traffic light in LA?
           2) In that same vein, take a look at http://sigalert.com(above poster).
              It's utterly invaluable for avoiding traffic.  Even better,
              if you have a treo or some mobile www browser, they have
              non-map based freeway speed lists by specific freeway.
           3) Learn to read a map.  Buy a thomas guide.  It's easy. Local
              roads are actually nice to take.  You get a sense of local
              businesses and culture.  Again, if you have to take the
              freeway, avoid traffic hourse, use sigalert, consider alt.
              routes (eg. 405-S or 110-S to Long Beach, 60-E or 10-E to
              Monterey Park).
           4) If you're going to MP, don't forget San Gabriel.
           -nivra