Chumdinger

I was reading the other day that idling you car in traffic burns about half a gallon of gas every 30 minutes and burns a few people’s patience as well. And while I’m lucky to have everything in walking distance when at home (i.e. grocery, restaurants, coffee houses, etc.) and at work, I still have to drive between the two places.

On some evenings, I drive directly from work to Bel Air (20.5 miles), right in the middle of peak Los Angeles rush hour. I used to take the freeways (see blue route below) from El Segundo. Pretty straight forward. 105 east to 405 north, exit Mulholland and I’m there. Problem is, that during rush hour, this takes about 1 hour 20 minutes.

Most people think that freeways are the fastest ways to get to a destination. They may the most direct, but when everyone is on them, it’s not the fastest.

So I talked to a few folks and honed in on a new plan, mainly using surface streets (see red route). The result on yesterday’s commute? Just shy of 50 minutes… a half hour savings.

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I did a map to help visualize:

Blue Route : 1 hour 20 minutes
Start in El Segundo (bottom of map) Main Street north to 105 E to 405 N to Mulholland

Red Route : 50 minutes
Start in El Segundo Grand Ave west to Vista del Mar to Culver, Left on Centinella, Right on Ocean Park, Left on Barrington, Cut over on side streets to Santa Monica, 405 N onramp which is the same as the Wilshire offramp, Exited 405 at Wilshire, Turned north onto Sepulveda, Back on 405 just past Sunset to Mulholland.

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So what have I learned from this other than it saves time? In the bigger perspective, just because everyone is doing something a certain way, doesn’t mean it’s always the best way. If you’re stuck in a frustrating situation, you don’t have to stay there. And to quote Robert Frost —