Is it easy enough to commute to LA from Irvine, CA?

That is a hellish commute.

FYI UC Irvine is known as "University of Chinese Immigrants" and Irvine is home to a very large Asian community. Not that there is anything wrong with that.

[Quote]And is traffic a complete and total nightmare?

LA is famous for its traffic. What do you expect this answer to be...?

You would have to go through the "Orange Crush" which is the daily miasma of traffic in Orange County is called.

^ which is what the traffic in Orange County is called.

Traffic nightmare. It's 40+ miles, it will take at least 1 1/2 hours each way.

I used to do that commute for about a year. 90 minutes in the morning. You go through 2 different rush hours. Night was even worse.

Irvine is not terrible, it is a large suburban community, but it is not L.A.

There is a train if you live/work close to the stop, which granted is a big if.

A commute by public transportation is much less taxing on the soul than a commute where you have to drive.

Is it close to Long Beach?

It's fine, OP, depending on the time. My cousin commutes to work from Laguna Niguel to Oxnard, and he's fine with it.

Its "fine" as long as you are okay with driving 1.5 hours-2 hours for your commute.

People do it, people do all sorts of commutes. But there is no getting around a lot of your life is going to be spent just getting to and from work.

It sucks during mid-morning on a Sunday. That's kinda my litmus test. Irvine itself is just deed restricted suburbia. office buildings and a crummy little airport.

Noooooooo, don't do it. It would take forever and a day. Irvine is nice, though. Boring suburbia, but it feels as if a crime was never committed there.

To the poster who asked about. Long Beach, I actually did used to commute from Long Beach to Irvine and handled it fine. Long Beach is closer, but it's still a drive.

When I was a kid (1960s), most of Irvine still looked like this. Orange groves, strawberry fields and vegetable farms, separated by rows of eucalyptus trees for windbreaks. Now it's one massive city. The land became too valuable for agriculture.

Isn’t this why Kobe had a helicopter?

It's especially bad if there's any kind of rain going on.

Irvine is clean and nice the beach cities are great. Watch Orange County housewives. Yes you will spend 2 hrs on freeway to Los Angeles. You should carpool with hotties

R17 Is there an app for that?

OP, what is your deal? Do you live in LA now and got a job offer in Irvine? But then why would need to ask strangersif there is traffic.

Are you moving to Socal for a job in Irvine but want to live in LA because it is more fun?

R6, Laguna Niguel to Oxnard?????????? That is at least three hours one way during rush hour. I had to drive from Woodland Hills to Irvine (way closer than Oxnard but still hellish) during rush hour once and that took three hours.

I have a couple friends who take the train to work from South OC to DTLA every day. It’s an hour and a half each way but at least you can work or relax rather than focus on driving in stop and go traffic.

Please live close to work. Life is so much better with a short commute.

My commute is about 20 minutes each way... 30 on a terrible traffic day. Can't imagine devouring more than that amount of time to the commute.

A question I don't see that anyone's asked is: where in LA? The greater Los Angeles area is just massive. There’s going to be a big difference in your commute time between “just north of Long Beach“ versus say, the Valley.

I think you’re talking 90 minutes each way as an absolute minimum, and probably much more.

Any chance you can flex your commute time so you're not dealing with peak traffic? Can you get an electric car so you can drive in the carpool lane?

Irvine is 45 miles from Hollywood. That would be a 45 minute to 1 hour drive at 6am or after 9pm. It would take a minimum of 90 minutes and up to 2.5 hours on a normal rush hour both ways.

Meanwhile, someone said they have a relative who commutes from Laguna Niguel to Oxnard and thinks its no big deal. They are 110 miles apart. Minimum 2 hour drive without traffic. With traffic, that 110 miles could take well over 3 hours. In any given month, there would probably be a 4 hour drive. And there is ALWAYS traffic from 7-10am and 4-9pm. EVEN ON WEEKENDS.

Irvine is a blah suburb (albeit nice looking), but even regular ho-hum tract houses can be $2M - $3M+ there. Guess it's the schools.

Boring surburbs is exactly the type of environment your standard family is looking for r25. Nice schools, safe, "family-friendly"

I suggest I-20, I-75 and I-85 here in the Atlanta metro area. Dear non existent deity it takes me 40 minutes to 30 miles to the office. The return anywhere from an 1 to 2 hours. It is horrendous.

Twenty years ago I used to commute from Calabasas to Huntington Beach. Back then it was an hour each way...now days it would easily be double that as traffic gets worse seemingly week by week. Now I commute from the Westside to the Valley and that’s fine because it’s a reverse commute.

Eartha says no.