If you’ve come to this page, you’re already more than aware of L.A.’s reputation as a “slow” city…especially during rush hour. While we can’t help but love our City of Angels, it can be just as scary as it is frustrating to get stuck in traffic in the city. It’s important to know not only the quickest route home, but also the safest, which is why we’ve shared with you a free tip about figuring out how to finagle your way around L.A. traffic.
Below is a step-by-step guide to looking up traffic updates in Los Angeles on desktop or mobile.
DESKTOP VIEW:
1. Visit Google Maps and type in your destination. We decided to just choose “Los Angeles” to give a broad overview of the traffic in the area during rush hour on a weekday.
2. At the very bottom of this prompt box, you’ll usually see an option for “Traffic, Bicycling, Terrain.” Click this. If you don’t see prompt, it may be because the page setup is different. In this case, it will look like Option 2. Click on “Traffic.” Both options take you to Step 3.
3. From here, Google provides you with the option to view live traffic or typical traffic patterns. For our purposes, select “Typical traffic.” You’ll now be able to adjust the day and time of day to see which roads are congested at various times of the day. Choosing “Live Traffic” will lead you to a report of the current driving conditions. This could be a good report to look up right before leaving work to see if you should try an alternate on your way home.
4. We’ve used the zoom tool to get a closer street view of traffic conditions. Not surprisingly, the inner and outer belt lines are the busiest.
FOR MOBILE GOOGLE MAPS* USERS
1, Open the Google Maps App. Type in your destination in the search bar to see live traffic around you, or if you’re interested in seeing the traffic for a destination, select the menu icon in the left corner of the Google search bar.
* These directions are for iPhone users, but other smartphone users should be able to follow along.
2. After clicking on the icon, a side menu should pop up. Select “Traffic.”
3. If you’ve selected a destination, you will see current traffic patterns at the time of search. While you aren’t able to utilize the Typical Traffic tool, this map should still provide you with an idea of which routes other drivers frequent the most.
Please make sure that the iPhone map destination is set up before you drive since driving and holding a phone is illegal in California. Get it ready, mount it to your dash so it can easily seen while driving, and enjoy your trip safely.
