Orange County Freeways
At the beginning of November I flew from Buenos Aires, Argentina to Orange County’s John Wayne Airport on Continental Airlines. The route went through Houston, Texas, which is a Continental Airlines hub, and then Newark Airport on the east coast before flying to California. Total travel time was about 28 hours.
In California, everything is spread out so it is impossible to walk to anything. They call this suburban sprawl. Orange County has buses for public transportation, but they run too infrequently–once every half hour or hour. To get to most places you have to change buses so it takes forever to reach your final destination. You can only make one round trip per day. Buses are operated by the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA).
So to get around efficiently southern California, you must have an automobile. California is a car culture and the freeways are a way of life. I rented a car from Alamo at the airport to drive to my hotel. I left the airport and got on the 405 freeway and got first-hand experience of California’s freeway.
Rush Hour
Avoid the freeways during rush hour. Unfortunately, rush hour is California is almost all the time! Morning rush hour starts at 4 or 5AM and lasts until about 10AM. Evening rush hour is from about 3PM until 8PM.
During the day, the best time to drive is between 10AM and 2PM. Outside of that window you will probably be stuck in traffic. At night, after 8PM but before 5AM the next morning will usually avoid the worst of rush hour. However it is not unknown to be stopped in traffic on the I-5 freeway at midnight!