A few months ago I published a popular blog about the drive times between cities in California during one of my wretched drives from San Diego to Sacramento. I must have gotten 100 responses with various anecdotes and personal travel times, so I thought I’d post on the topic again today.
Yesterday evening my wife, our daughter and I left downtown Sacramento at exactly 3pm… bound for San Diego. There was stop stop and go traffic for a bit in Sacramento and outside of Stockton, but we reached Stockton at 3:45, Modesto at 4:15, and Fresno at 5:30. My average speed was probably 70mph. We stopped at one of the innumerable and ersatz food stops for 15 minutes in Tulare County to grab a burger and jump back in the car. My 2 year old preceded to eat 3/4 of the burger then got a kick out of throwing the rest at the back of my head. Outside of Fresno my speed was closer to 80 or 85mph – we reached Bakersfield at 7:15, 4 hours and 15 minutes after we left Sacramento. Interestingly, I drive a Volvo and I had only used 2/5 a tank of gas at this point.
My next jump was over the Grapevine and along the 5 past downtown LA, which had little traffic. I passed downtown at 8:45 at about 70mph. As always, there was great relief at reaching OC – the difference in freeways at the county lines is insane. I mean when on the 5 in LA you feel like you are in Mad Max, but the second you hit Orange its Brave New World. I got in the commuter lane and hit about 80mph for the rest of the trip. I reached Mission Viejo at 9:30, Oceanside at 10:00 and downtown San Diego at 10:30. That makes for a 7 1/2 trip. I used 3/4 a tank of gas for a cost of around $30 + $16 dinner (hint – they get you on the French Fries and Cokes).
Without the traffic in the northern valley, and without the rest stop I think I could have done it in 7 hours easy. Note to political campaigners using these times for judging ‘stops’ – my guess is you will drive slower.
April 25th, 2006 at 12:00 am
With my current home, the only traffic stat I care about is the Las Vegas-San Diego run. I live at the southern end of the Vegas Valley, so it’s about 345 miles from my doorstep to central San Diego. When you live here, you’re typically leaving for SoCal against traffic, and unless there is construction (largely finished) or a massive pileup (always a possibility) on I-15, we get to fly through while all of you are in the northbound parking lot; then, vice versa coming back. Usually, I do the run in 5 – 5 1/2 hours, including dinner in V-ville at Bob’s Big Boy and a pit stop or two – which, when I worked out the math, means I average between 76 and 86mph when I’m actually behind the wheel. My car is pretty light on the wheels, and I’m a little overcautious with the crosswinds you experience heading through some of the mountain passes, otherwise I’d average higher; before I had to retire my ’91 Legend, which sat low and heavy on the ground, I’d often find myself cruising at 100+ on the long, sparsely trafficked straightaways heading through places like Ontario and Barstow.
I got to experience the tourist’s plight a few weeks ago when I came out mid-week to meet with my tax preparer, then caught a ride back with Franklin Delano Hilliker, Jr. It cured me of my bad habit of chuckling whenever I’d see those solid walls of stopped Vegas-bound cars as I’d be flying southbound on a Friday with no interference – which I shouldn’t have been doing anyway, since I owe my state-tax free existence to all “you” Californians bringing those tourist dollars to us!