Los Angeles City Layout

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Back to Los AngelesNavigating Los Angeles

Los Angeles isn't a single compact city like San Francisco, but a sprawling suburbia comprising dozens of disparate communities located either on the ocean or the flatlands of a huge desert basin. Ocean breezes push the city's infamous smog inland and through mountain passes into the sprawl of the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys. Downtown Los Angeles is in the center of the basin, about 12 miles east of the Pacific Ocean. Most visitors spend the bulk of their time either along the coastline or on the city's ever-trendy Westside (see "Neighborhoods in Brief" for complete details on all of the city's sectors).

Main Arteries & Streets -- L.A.'s extensive system of toll-free, high-speed freeways connects the city's patchwork of communities. The system works well to get you where you need to be, although rush-hour (roughly 6-9am and 4-7pm) traffic is often bumper-to-bumper. Here's an overview (best read with an L.A. map in hand):

U.S. 101, called the Ventura Freeway in the San Fernando Valley and the Hollywood Freeway in the city, runs across L.A. in a roughly northwest-southeast direction, from the San Fernando Valley to the center of Downtown. You'll encounter heavy rush-hour traffic.

California 134 continues as the Ventura Freeway after U.S. 101 turns into the city and becomes the Hollywood Freeway. This branch of the Ventura Freeway continues directly east, through the valley towns of Burbank and Glendale, to I-210 (the Foothill Fwy.), which takes you through Pasadena and out toward the eastern edge of Los Angeles County.

I-5, otherwise known as the Golden State Freeway north of I-10 and the Santa Ana Freeway south of I-10, bisects Downtown on its way from Sacramento to San Diego.

I-10, labeled the Santa Monica Freeway west of I-5 and the San Bernardino Freeway east of I-5, is the city's major east-west freeway, connecting the San Gabriel Valley with Downtown and Santa Monica.

I-405, known as the San Diego Freeway, runs north-south through L.A.'s Westside, connecting the San Fernando Valley with LAX and southern beach areas. Tip: This is one of the area's busiest freeways; avoid it as much as possible, and like the plague during rush hour.

I-105, Los Angeles's newest freeway -- called the Century Freeway -- extends from LAX east to I-605.

I-110, commonly known as the Harbor Freeway, starts in Pasadena as California 110 (the Pasadena Fwy.); it becomes an interstate in Downtown Los Angeles and runs directly south, where it dead-ends in San Pedro. The section that is now the Pasadena Freeway was Los Angeles's first freeway, known as the Arroyo Seco when it opened in 1940.

I-710, aka the Long Beach Freeway, runs in a north-south direction through East Los Angeles and dead-ends at Long Beach. Crammed with big rigs leaving the port in San Pedro in a rush, this is the ugliest and most dangerous freeway in California.

I-605, the San Gabriel River Freeway, runs from the I-405 near Seal Beach to the I-210 interchange at Duarte. It follows the San Gabriel River (hence the moniker), roughly paralleling the I-710 to the east. Most importantly, it gets you through the San Gabriel Valley up to the edge of the San Gabriel Mountains.

California 1 -- called Highway 1, the Pacific Coast Highway, or simply PCH -- is more of a scenic parkway than a freeway. It skirts the ocean, linking all of L.A.'s beach communities, from Malibu to the Orange Coast. It's often slow going due to all the stoplights but is far more scenic than the freeways.

A complex web of surface streets complements the freeways. From north to south, the major east-west thoroughfares connecting Downtown to the beaches are Sunset, Santa Monica, Wilshire, Olympic, Pico, and Venice boulevards.

Stay Away From the Santa Monica Boulevard -- I don't care what Randy Newman says: If you're driving to or from Santa Monica and the Westside communities -- Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, Century City -- try to avoid Santa Monica Boulevard, which is almost always jammed. Both Wilshire and Pico boulevards parallel Santa Monica Boulevard and are usually less congested (Pico Blvd. is my savior).