There's been no meeting, no memo, no poll. But everyone who lives on the Westside of Los Angeles or does business there has independently arrived at the same conclusion:
Traffic has gotten so predictably, maddeningly, curse-the-gods miserable that only a fool would attempt to head east after 3 p.m. on a weekday.
Some war-weary traffic veterans say even that's too late.
"Three o'clock is not a sweet spot anymore," insists Kevin Sheehy, an attorney who lives in Santa Monica and has found that all the alternate routes he used to take as he zigzagged east are now bottled up. "It's closer to 2 o'clock."
L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky has told his secretary to schedule nothing for him west of the 405 unless he can wrap things up by 2:30 p.m. He'll schedule later events, but only if they end after 8 p.m., when traffic has lifted. And, of course, he avoids heading from east to west in the morning if he can help it because that can be just as bad, with thousands of people commuting to jobs in Santa Monica and thereabouts.
"There is no part of Los Angeles County where it takes such a long time to go such a short distance," says Yaroslavsky, who's on the road more than most people. "I've several times been stuck in a traffic jam that is just total, absolute gridlock, where it doesn't move. You're in the same place for 10 minutes at a time."
The trip that sent Yaroslavsky over the edge was in October. After attending an event on Cloverfield Boulevard near Michigan Avenue in Santa Monica, he headed east at 6:30 p.m., expecting to be on time for a 7:30 Beverly Hills appointment. But by 7:20, he was just getting to the 405.
"I never even made it to the Beverly Hills event, so I went home to Fairfax. It took one hour and 41 minutes from Cloverfield to Beverly and La Brea."
It was only about 11 miles, Yaroslavsky said. He could have jogged the distance in less time.
Now Yaroslavsky has asked a traffic engineer to investigate the possibility of turning Olympic and Pico boulevards into one-way thoroughfares.
In the meantime, Westside traffic has become the city's all-purpose excuse.
Late for work? Westside traffic.
Marriage on the rocks? Westside traffic.
Lost 10 years of your life? Westside traffic.
Yaroslavsky said it's a big topic at downtown cultural institutions, where they're wondering if traffic combat fatigue is keeping Westsiders from filling up seats at music, dance and theater events.
