People who live and work in SoCal

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I've been thinking about moving there in the future, but every time I visit it takes me 30-40 mins to get somewhere. I was thinking, if you get stuck in traffic for one hour everyday heading to work and another hour heading back home you spent two hours of your life in the car. I'm just exaggerating the numbers here. So if you work M-F you spend 10 hours total stuck in traffic. God dam I know it's simple math but do we really sit down and think about it? Is there any way around that? At first I thought of living in Northridge so I'll be somewhat close to LA but the houses are too expensive. Someone living in SoCal wanna school me on this and persuade me not to make the move?
 
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Never lived in Cali but have visited many times, my cousin works out there a few blocks away from the golden state warriors stadium

All I know is Cali is expensive as a mother****er
Beautiful gorgeous state, but expensive as all hell
 
I live in San Diego and traffic has got worse. Feels like I'm L.A. at times. Luckily I live off the highway and work is 15 minutes away.
 
Takes about an hour to get home but only takes me 20-25 to get to work
I’m about 10 miles from my job.
I usually do this time to call family and catch up. Listen to an audio book. Call to pay bills.
I guess you get used to it after sometime.
 
factor in all the time you spend commuting. if you are ok with your pay for all those hrs and dont mind traffic then you'd be fine
 
Traffic is what it is. If you want to reclaim your time on the commute take public transportation so you can read/surf the internet.
 
Live close to your work. Slum it in an apartment.

Every major city is like this now. At least you don't have to inhale butt fumes like New Yorkers do on the train for 2 hours a day.
 
My friend moved out to San Diego for a job and after his contract is up he is coming back to AZ. It’s auper expensive out there, but the lifestyle is legit
 
I have lived here all my life . (North Hollywood, Van Nuys, West Hollywood, Los Feliz, Lake Balboa)
I have never had to commute regularly anywhere else but southern California. So I don't really have anywhere to compare to... But the traffic here is absolutely miserable. Seriously.
It fricken sucks .

Some people will say you'll just get used to it. I seem incapable of that.

Northridge is in the north-west section of the SFV. Depending on where in Los Angeles youll be commuting to, and your times of commute, you're looking at anywhere between 30-90min in the AM and 60-120min in the PM.

The ideal situation would be to find a place to live close to your job, but that's easier said than done. It's expensive out here. Gentrification going on everywhere is just making it worse.

Any question, ask away.! I'll be happy to answer based on my experiences.
 
Lived in SoCal my whole life. I’m one of the ones who has gotten used to it.

Currently live in Monterey Park and work in Pasadena. Commute is 30 minutes. Can’t complain. I consider that good.
 
Lived in so.cal all my life. From 00 - 04 (02 - 04 driving stick shift), my commute was 40 miles round trip, 605 fwy N to the 5 fwy S. Some days were worse than others. To me, I really didn't mind it. It's the price you pay if you want to live in this area. Now with prices the way they are, I don't blame some people for wanting to leave. High cost of living plus traffic, it will drive some people insane.
 
Over LA traffic. My car got a damn check engine and went in safe mode in the middle of rush hour on Tuesday, had to push my damn car to the shoulder in West LA rush hour... SMFH

BTW my commutes atleast 1 1/2 from Southbay to West LA
 
Takes about an hour to get home but only takes me 20-25 to get to work
I’m about 10 miles from my job.
I usually do this time to call family and catch up. Listen to an audio book. Call to pay bills.
I guess you get used to it after sometime.

Yeah traffic not as bad as the other responses. You just have to know the times to drive. If you on the freeway at 8-10 am, you're gonna be in traffic. If you get off work at like 5 or 6, you're gonna be in traffic. Outside of that, I be rolling with no problems
 
Traffic is just a part of life here. Really no way around it.

It takes me 40-60 minutes to get to work, but then takes me 15-20 to get home. Mind you, I’m driving to work at 5pm the peak of rush hour and coming home at 3am. When the freeways are empty.
 
Traffic is just a part of life here. Really no way around it.

It takes me 40-60 minutes to get to work, but then takes me 15-20 to get home. Mind you, I’m driving to work at 5pm the peak of rush hour and coming home at 3am. When the freeways are empty.

Now that's the worst. That 5pm - 7pm range is awful on weekdays. If you work in Downtown LA, that would have you fuming.
 
Lived in LA all my life, so I'm used to the traffic. Although I still sometimes hate it. But my commute is an hour each way. I work in downtown LA and live about 18 miles from my job. I switch off from the train and driving. It's an hour either way barring no train delays. The train sucks and is too inconsistent. Too many issues that can delay your commute up to an additional hour. I feel bad for people who take the train and have to clock in at work. Being salaried helps because I don't worry too much about the time.
 
drove from carlsbad to LAX and those pockets of traffic that seem to pop up for no reason was horrible. left super early but still almost couldn’t detour to langers for pastrami because of the traffic.

traffic here in hawaii is just as bad or worse though.
 
I live in Koreatown and work in West Hollywood, takes me about 30 to 40 minutes to get to work in the morning. After work I go to a gym in Hollywood which is only about 10 minutes away. Thankfully by the time I get out of the gym, Hollywood back to Koreatown is a quick 15 to 20 minutes.

My commute isn’t nearly as rough as most people I know but I just use the time for podcasts, audio books, or listening to good and calm music.
 
drove from carlsbad to LAX and those pockets of traffic that seem to pop up for no reason was horrible. left super early but still almost couldn’t detour to langers for pastrami because of the traffic.

traffic here in hawaii is just as bad or worse though.

When I went to Hawaii I was lucky not to run into any traffic. It was just weird because the highway is 55 when Im used to pushing 70-80 and that's normal.
 
It's funny that someone brought this up. I was just watching a documentary and they mentioned that planners never got to complete the highway system they originally intended to build. I believe the residents in the building sites didn't want their house/neighborhood torn down.
 
Ya traffic is garbo.

I’m from Santa Clarita, work in west La. going down at 5am is like 4mins. Going back up 90m.

I’m actually thinking about living in. The Northridge area myself.
 
Traffic is bad and there is no solution.

I live about 25 miles east of DTLA and I commute daily to work and everyone knows coming west to work is always traffic and then going home east ****ing sucks.

What i do ... my shift is at 0630 and i get to work at 0400 to go to the gym and workout, shower and get ready ... u knock out your gym and u avoid any traffic.

Going home at 1430 ... lets just say i get home with fast trak in about 30-40 mins without it could take 1-2 hours.

You learn to adjust and adapt bro thats it.
 
traffic sucks.
podcasts help.
My commute is about 30 minutes to work. Easily over an hour to get home.
 
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