How to Avoid the Most Traffic on the 110 South From Downtown LA

Many Angelenos work in downtown Los Angeles and commute in from South Bay and Orange County. From 3 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., the 110 freeway can look like a highway to hell, but if you know the secrets, you can save yourself a good 5 to 20 minutes.

Difficulty: Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• AM/FM radio

1. Tune your radio to either KFWB News 980 or KNX 1070, depending on what time it is. KFWB does traffic on the 1's (meaning 2:31, 2:41, 2:51 and so forth); KNX does traffic on the 5's.

2. Ensure that there is not a major problem on the 110 South. If there is, take an alternate route from downtown, such as Broadway or Vermont. Broadway will take you all the way down to Manchester, where you can jump on the 110. Vermont will take you into South Bay.

3. Merge onto the 110 South via the Olympic Boulevard entrance.

4. Move to the furthest lane of traffic to make the transition from the on-ramp onto the 10/110 ramp.

5. Remain in the right lane until Martin Luther King Boulevard appears. Then merge into traffic before your lane is forced to exit at MLK.

6. Position yourself back into the right lane again, once MLK has passed, to bypass some of the stagnant traffic.

7. Move over to one of the farther lanes once traffic merging onto the freeway has slowed down your lane. The lane closest to the carpool lane usually moves the quickest.

8. Check traffic again to see if there are any major accidents or delays on any of the other freeways you will need to take, such as the 405, 91 or 105.

Tips & Warnings

• I developed this route after driving from downtown LA to South Bay every day for more than a year. The way I know these secrets is that I observe traffic patterns and what I can and cannot get away with in rush-hour traffic. You can do the same to develop your own system for avoiding the most traffic, no matter what freeway you're on.
• Remember never to do anything dangerous in the name of saving a few minutes of time.

Resources

• West Los Angeles County Traffic Report 110 South
• Tracking the 110 Traffic

[atmosphere]

on 3/12/2009 your step 5 disgusts me. did you know that people like you who utilize those right lanes and merge back into traffic often block traffic in both lanes trying to squeeze in? this makes people panic and merge left which creates a massive wave of traffic that radiates backwards

[dmobile]

on 2/22/2009 That looks like a real traffic jam!