LAX Traffic – Avoid the Worst of the LA Freeways to get to LAX Airport

We were currently in LA for the holidays and I remembered why we moved out of Southern CA, THE TRAFFIC, especially on the LA Freeways. It royally sucks, no other way to say it. With this in mind, I asked Gene to write up a short post about getting back to the airport while avoiding some of the most horrible LAX Traffic on the freeways – aka parking lots, lol.   He was a courier in the LA area for almost 18 years and drove at least 50, 000 – 60,000 miles a year on these congested freeways. Thus, he has had a lot of experience trying to avoid the daily backups. Please let us know if you have any questions.

If you find yourself in Central Los Angeles and need to head to the LAX airport, again, LAX traffic can be extremely brutal, here are some alternatives to taking the often congested LA Freeways. This area includes the Beverly Center, Farmers Market, The Grove Shopping Center, the L.A. County Museum of Art (LACMA), and La Brea Tarpits.  Basically, the route is taking La Cienega (see-e-ne-ga) Blvd. south to the airport instead of taking the San Diego Freeway (I-405), which if often heavily congested both directions between the Santa Monica Freeway (I-10) and the Airport.  If taking La Cienega Blvd. or Fairfax Ave., you won’t have to turn because Fairfax merges onto La Cienega south of the 10 Freeway in Culver City.

If you are further east, take La Brea Ave., Highland Ave., which merges onto La Brea Ave., Crenshaw Blvd, Wilton Place, or Western Avenue south to the 10 Freeway and head west toward Santa Monica. Take exit 7B Washington Blvd/Fairfax Ave and stay in one of the left of 2 lanes. At the bottom of the off-ramp, make a left turn at Washington Blvd.  Stay in the left lane and make a left turn at Fairfax Ave.  In about a ¼ mile, Fairfax will merge onto La Cienega Blvd southbound.  From there, continue south 3.5 miles.

You may see cabs and airport shuttles headed the same way, which tells you that you’re headed the right way.  When you come to the intersection of La Tijera (tee-hair-a) Blvd, if you aren’t returning a rental car, make a 45 degree right turn and drive 2 miles to Sepulveda (Se-pull-ve-da) Blvd and turn left to the airport.  If you are returning a rental car, continue south on La Cienega and consult your map to find your rental car lot.

I do miss my family and our friends, but I am really glad that we don’t live in LA anymore. I worked about 7 miles from my house and it took me 35-45 minutes to get to work sometimes. It was absolutely horrible.   The one thing I remember about traffic was that it was a crapshoot sometimes. Even if there wasn’t an accident (or the “I must slow down and see the interesting site of a man changing a tire”) you could leave at the same time every day and one day would be ok and the next day would be horrendous. It was quite frustrating.

I am glad to get to LA and every once in a while to remind you why we left, lol. Hope these tips help you beat some of the LAX traffic so you can get to the airport on time and be a little bit less stressed. Again, please feel free to email us with any questions or comments.   One last thing I forgot to mention, with all the extra time saved, make sure to hit In N Out before you get to the airport. Gotta have it at least once while in LA. 🙂 Also make sure to visit two of my favorite beaches, Seal Beach and Huntington Beach. You will not be disappointed. Happy travels.