Colleagues, I have business meeting in Sherman Oaks and staying at the Radisson on Ventura Bl. For budget reasons I was put on a flight into Long Beach which looks far away. Flight comes in at 5:20p, and I was wondering if locals with knowledge of the traffic can tell me the best way to get from Longbeach to Sherman Oaks?

I certainly hope you are arriving on a weekend day. 405 North is the direct route, and it will be sticky even on a weekend at points. If a weekday, you are screwed. Doesn't really make a difference which way you take, all will suck.

For simplicity's sake, I'd probably still stick with the 405 North. Take it through West LA, and once past Sunset you head "over the hill". At the crest of the hill, or perhaps even before it, the line will start forming on the right hand side to get off at the interchange at the foot of the hill, several miles away. Off at Ventura blvd, and the hotel is very near there, should be able to see it at, I believe, the intersection of Ventura and Sepulveda or very close to there.

Come to think of it, they are doing construction on that intersection right now. Heh, you are screwed. Bring a good book, perhaps even a bite to eat for dinner, and an empty Gatorade jar to piss in. You might check in in time for Letterman on tv. Tell your travel arranger never to do that to you again when you return. Happy motoring.

I certainly hope you are arriving on a weekend day. 405 North is the direct route, and it will be sticky even on a weekend at points. If a weekday, you are screwed. Doesn't really make a difference which way you take, all will suck.

For simplicity's sake, I'd probably still stick with the 405 North. Take it through West LA, and once past Sunset you head "over the hill". At the crest of the hill, or perhaps even before it, the line will start forming on the right hand side to get off at the interchange at the foot of the hill, several miles away. Off at Ventura blvd, and the hotel is very near there, should be able to see it at, I believe, the intersection of Ventura and Sepulveda or very close to there.

Come to think of it, they are doing construction on that intersection right now. Heh, you are screwed. Bring a good book, perhaps even a bite to eat for dinner, and an empty Gatorade jar to piss in. You might check in in time for Letterman on tv. Tell your travel arranger never to do that to you again when you return. Happy motoring.

brad is not exaggerating one bit. What airline is cheaper into Long Beach? because of Southwest there are usually VERY resonable fares into Burbank. If it were me I would pay my own way if it meant the difference between Burbank and Long Beach for a Shreman Oaks meeting!

Otherwise, your only hope is to have dinner in Long Beach, and head north on the 405 after 7:30 or 8 PM

I imagine you are flying JetBlue which has VERY good prices into Long Beach.
I live near Culver City (a bit more than the half way point) and often have to commute from Long Beach to where I live. Even at that hour, you are likely not to hit a lot of traffic until
LAX (LA Airport). Then, however, it gets quite awful--anywhere from 0 to 25 miles per hour for the rest of your trip. It could easily take you from 1 (very optimistic estimate) to 2 hours
to get from the Long Beach airport to
Sherman Oaks. On the other hand, maybe your flight will be late, and you'll head out later after the initial crush of rush hour. I would say only after 7:30 pm, will traffic ease up from LAX to Sherman Oaks. However, we have great music stations and talk shows on the radio, so relax and enjoy.