The Fastest Rush Hour Commute in LA? It’s the 10.
LA ranked as the most congested city in 2017 for the 6th straight year, according to the INRIX traffic scorecard.
But not all commutes are created equal.
We looked at 36 different freeway commutes at rush hour and calculated which ones moved at the fastest speed.
The fastest?
The evening commute heading west on the 10 freeway between the 57 and the 5
That’s more than triple the slowest rush hour commute: heading south on the 5 freeway (south of the 10) in the evening
Even Faster:
The fastest day on this fastest commute falls on Monday with the speed of 66.2 mph
How we did it:
First, we divided the Los Angeles freeway system into nine different segments. For example, we looked at the 10 freeway from Santa Monica till it intersects with the 5 freeway near Downtown. Then we looked at another segment of the 10 between the 5, heading east till it crosses the 57. Then, we divided each section into two directions (e.g., east and west on the 10, or north and south on the 5).
continued…
Using something called the ADMS database, we were able to calculate the average speed in each directions for every hour of 2017. We then grouped those hours into days of the week, so we have a reading for all Mondays at 6 am, all Tuesdays at 6 am, and so forth. Then, we calculated the average morning and evening rush hour speeds on each section in each direction. Morning rush hour is 7-9 am; evening rush hour is 4-7 pm. Finally, we ranked them from fastest to slowest, and we also looked at the fastest and slowest day of the week.
Still have questions about our process? Write to us at askus@crosstowntraffic.org
