I use this in my daily commute to downtown when I'm not on the bus (Which is rare).

http://www.sigalert.com/map.asp?Region=Greater+Los+Angeles

If you want to go straight to the source for traffic info, here are the links I check before venturing out very far --

CHP traffic site (raw data)
http://cad.chp.ca.gov/

Travel advisory news network (map views)
http://traffic.tann.net/lartraffic/

What about the carpool lane?
 

I live in Newport Beach and am also considering taking a job in Santa Monica. I was thinking of getting a hybrid to drive the carpool lanes or finding a carpool. Does anyone know what that commute is like? Would the carpool lane cut off alot of time?

I did that drive for one year, then two years from Irvine to West LA (right next to BH).

You go early, you come home late. That's it. For an early breakfast meeting or late dinner meeting, I'd stay the night in a hotel. One of my peers was commuting down from Santa Barbara. It's all about where you want to live, and in my case, raise kids. And I wanted to raise my kids in Irvine.

Carpool lane would help, and it's worth having a hybrid or Propane car for that alone.

You'll get hosed north of LAX where the carpool lane ends. I've made it the 20-ish miles from Long Beach to LAX in about 20-25 minutes (via the car pool lane, in traffic). Then the remaining 5 miles from there to Santa Monica took another 45.

They're supposedly extending the car pool lane (405 is all torn up in the middle) but at the pace that's going it should open in about mid-2018.

I use this http://traffic.tann.net/maps/knxlacmap.jsp or try 1070 AM in the car traffic evry 10 min.

Bottom Line.

In So Cal, you must live within 10 miles of your job to make any type of commute liveable.

I agree... I live 8 miles from my job and it takes me anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes a day to get home... But I do get to see a lot of P-Cars on the drive home... PCH rocks!!!

:cool:

check out westsiderentals.com for apartment listings....
or craigslist.com....

live near the beach, working in bh?

try venice, palms, SM... for a shorter commute...

redondo, hermosa, manhattan, el segundo for a longer commute...

i do the latter... on the weekends i walk to the beach while the rest look for parking... =)