Don is ruthless about not stopping but there is wisdom in his ways. Okay, it might not be for losers but it is most certainly for people who want to spend an entire day of their family vacation driving across the state. Stopping is for losers – or so says my husband Don. Plus, by moving kids directly from bed to the car when they’re half asleep, they are fuzzyheaded for a good hour or two before they realize they should be complaining.Ģ. We pack the car the night before, prep coffee and snacks, and get on the road as early as we can. The early departure gives you a head start on other travelers, helps you avoid rush hour traffic, and lets you see sunrise in the San Joaquin Valley – the prettiest time of day apart from sunset. We have pulled onto Interstate 5 from 580 at 7am and hit stopped traffic on the Saturday before Christmas. On prime holiday weekends, go an hour earlier. We leave at 6am for SF to LA trips and 5am for LA to SF trips. You must follow two simple rules to avoid an 8-10 hour trip. If you have more than two people traveling, driving will always be hundreds of dollars less expensive than flying – especially with today’s low gasoline prices.īut don’t think you can just waltz out to your car with your kids and your bags and get up or down the state in 6-7 hours. We drive SF-LA door-to-door in 6 to 7 hours, depending on where we start and end in each metro area, which makes the few hours saved by flying amazingly costly. When you factor in the time it takes to get to the airport, clear security, check-in, fly, and take ground transportation to your destination – which typically necessitates renting a car – you’re talking, best case, a 4-5 hour “flight time.” But the 400ish-mile-distance between the two cities means it takes almost as much time to fly as it does to drive. If you’re dreading a road trip down (or up) the state, don’t worry: There are several things you can do to make the trip fast and easy.įirst, you have to accept the fact that the fastest way to get between SF and LA is to drive “The 5.” Complainers say the famous Central Valley artery is unattractive and takes forever. Value added to one’s account does not show up on the card if it is not “picked up” within six months by a Clipper reader on one of the Bay Area transit systems.Ī customer service agent can help you move value you paid for, but which is now dormant, back onto your card.Having lived the first half of my life in Los Angeles and the second half in San Francisco, I have driven back and forth between the two cities about a thousand times – often on my own and often with kids in the back seat. The Clipper card is not deactivated if it goes unused for six months, as I mistakenly wrote last week. The agent said I could get it refunded, but that can’t be done so quickly.Ī: Thank you for sharing your experience. If I don’t use the Clipper card in the next six months, I will have to call back to get it reloaded again. The agent was able very quickly to get that amount transferred back into my account. I called customer service and found that if you don’t have any activity within six months of loading money, that load goes out of your account and into a holding account. Last week when I checked my balance, that last amount didn’t appear. After my last Caltrain trip to San Francisco in 2020, I put more money on it. Q: It has been over a year since I used my Clipper card. If you want to get around someone, move left, pass, and move right again as soon as possible. In some states, signage says, “Left Lane is for Passing Only.” It’s much clearer. Throughout California, signage says “Slower Traffic Keep Right.” The problem is that it requires people to determine if they are “slower” traffic. Q: I believe a big part of the problem on I-5 (and in California in general) is signage. He estimates he has driven about 250,000 miles between San Jose and Southern California on I-5 or the 101-46 route over 10 years. Google Maps claims it is 28 miles and 25 minutes longer for this route between San Jose and Los Angeles, but with my higher speed on 46, I find it adds only 10 minutes.Ī: Rich knows both routes well. That leaves about 60 miles of two-lane I-5.
The drive is far safer and more pleasant. By driving most of the way on Highway 101 - cutting over on the improved Highway 46, with Lost Hills as a refueling stop - I avoid the northern section of Interstate 5 and all of Highway 152. Q: I frequently drove Interstate 5 to Southern California and have a solution for those who use it.
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