Alex knows not of what he speaks. In N Out IS that good. Carl's - meh.

We did this quite a bit and some of the traffic reporters still do.

It is interesting to note that the I-5 is only the 'Santa Ana Freeway' between downtown LA and the merge with the 405 in Orange County. As JWBear noted, it is the 'San Diego Freeway' south of there. North of downtown, it is referred to as the 'Golden State Freeway.'

Some other freeway names that I am familiar with:

• 710 (formerly the 7) - Long Beach Freeway
• 57 - Orange Freeway
• 118 - Ronald Reagan Freeway
• 10 - It is known as the Santa Monica Freeway west of downtown and the San Bernardino east of downtown (I am not sure where it stops being the San Bernardino).
• 101 - This one is interesting. "North" of the interchange with the 170 and 134 freeways, it is the Ventura Freeway (I am not sure at what point north it stops being the Ventura Freeway). South of this interchange (170/134), the 101 becomes the Hollywood Freeway. However, the 170 Freeway is also called the Hollywood Freeway. The 134 is, I believe, the Glendale Freeway. But if you look at a map of this interchange, the 101 Ventura Freeway and the 134 are a straight line. Weird.
• 91 (between Anaheim and Corona)- the Worst Freeway in the World. Well, that's what I call it. Others call it the Riverside Freeway.

As Alex mentioned, it is hard to give advice until you know where you are going. California is a too widely varied state to just give simple advice.

The basic info is that Orange County and San Francisco are very expensive. San Diego (IMO) has the best overall year-round climate. The closer you are to the major population centers, the more expensive it is going to be. The better places to live (depending on your definition of course) are going to cost more.

Yes, the ROUTES have names. The freeways have numbers. The confusitory nature of the changing Route Names along the same freeways gave rise to almost all Southern Californians referring to the freeways by number with a "The" in front, and for some oddball reason, all Northern Californians opting for the royal Number with no "The."

Except for the very odd odd intersection where the 101 becomes the 134 if you travel in a straight line in one direction while the 170 becomes the 101 if you travel in a straight line in the other (with the added strangeness that, of the four possible direction changes here, there's no freeway interchange from the 101 east to the 170 north) ... ahem, except for that oddity, most numbers are consistent while staying on the same freeway ... and that's why the numbers gained dominance over the names.


But why in the world don't the numbers have "The" in NorCal??? Do most people there refer to themselves in the third person also??

And now, some useful advise.

It's not merely that major population centers are more expensive, but that the majorest population centers are along the coast. It's not expensive there merely because you can get to the pretty, pretty ocean ... but because the air is not considered breathably healthy once you are more than 20 miles inland.

The price to pay for the affordability of housing in such areas are a) the likelihood that you will commute 7 hours per day and see your affordable house only on weekends; and b) the likelihood that your lungs will fill with tar and gunk, your children will develop asthma and your chance of developing lung cancer is the same as if you smoked a pack per day.



As one who recently experienced something similar, I suspect your fascination with moving to California is based on your recent visit. I'm glad you're planning 5 years out, because cooler heads will prevail and your ultimate decision will be more grounded.

I love California and I understand why zillions of others do, too. But it's precisely because of those zillions of others that if I were moving somewhere today, it would never be California.

I shudder to think of how crowded it's going to be in 5 years ... and how tight the competition will be for living space where you can safely breathe the air. Alas, I figure I may have to finally abandon the Golden State of Once Earthly Paradise in 10 or 15.






.

And the 110, which, variously is the Harbor Freeway or the Pasadena Freeway.

Still no name for the 605? Perhaps the Samuel Beckett Freeway, given some of the landscape it passes through.

Since every interstate in the Bay Area except one ends in 80 I've long wondered by time has eroded the references down to just being the first number.

To further make it odd, the 101 Ventura is technically a North/South freeway (even though it is running almost perfectly East/West through the valley. Odd numbered highways are N/S whereas even numbered are E/W. So leading away from that interchange are two northbound, one southbound, one eastbound yet no westbound.

North of the 101 it is the Pasadena. South of the 101 it is the Harbor. The Pasadena Freeway is considered the first 'Freeway' in the United States.

Actually, it is called the San Gabriel River Freeway.
_____

What I believe has to be the shortest, or one of the shortest freeways in the world, the 90 Freeway is called the Marina Freeway. For those who aren't familiar with it, this is the freeway that intersects the 405 in Inglewood/Marina del Rey. Not counting the ends, there is just the intersection with the 405 and I believe one street worth of on and off ramps.

I hate the signs peppered throughout the Valley that direct you to the 101 North or South, which must confuse the heck out of less saavy people who know good and well they are traveling east or west.


The 605 has a name. It's just that name usage by the populace disappeared by the time that freeway got popular. It's the San Gabriel River Freeway.

Likewise, the newest SoCal freeway, the 105, is the Century Freeway. No one calls it that, or even knows its name.


Use of the names like "Santa Ana Freeway," "Ventura Freeway" are vestigal of another time, and will likely disappear within a generation.

Though, of course, "Ventura Freeway" has longevity via a song name. And the "San Diego Freeway" has longevity through infamousness. (Though I believe the term "The 405" is more often uttered with more dripping menace and dread.)




ETA: Kevy beat me to it on the name for the 605.

Yeah, it's really hard to tell you where to live if we don't know where you'll be working. It's not an area where you can just resolve to "drive across town" to work - unless you like 3-hour commutes, of course ;)

I have to second the vote of confidence for Redlands. I wouldn't live out there without a job in that direction, but if it was convenient, it's freaking cute with all the Victorian homes, etc. The 909 IS less expensive, but unless it's a convenient commute, it can be really far. And some areas of it... meh.

And nothing is referred to in miles. How far is Disneyland? About 30 minutes. How many miles? No idea.

So are Ralphs and Kroger


Thank you! I was just having this conversation with a friend in SF. When discussing the freeways up there I always said "the x" where x is the freeway. And he was so confused.