About the signs near the 101S-152E interchange

[DTComposer]

Between work and in-laws I'm back and forth between San Jose and L.A. about six times a year. We prefer US-101 since there's more interesting stops for the toddler and the dogs, and since I lived in Santa Barbara for seven years it's nice to visit. However, the interesting stops end up adding an hour to our trip (since stops on I-5 are just short enough for bathroom breaks and grabbing food), and kid and dogs start to get antsy, particularly if we hit L.A. at rush hour (which is most of the time).

Going home we usually take I-5 since we're just interested in getting home fast - we leave as early as possible. We'll stop at Harris Ranch for food (in the gas station store next to the inn/restaurants they've opened a BBQ take-out - it's pretty quick and a lot tastier than the fast food options elsewhere on the route).

[sparker]

As someone who does greater LA to Sact'o about monthly for business purposes, my mental health is much better on CA 99 than I-5. I don't like the long spaces between exits, it's dreary dull, it seems lousier with truck traffic, and it's just two lanes. Kettleman City used to be my go-to stop when I used I-5 for the Bay Area, but now that I'm all central I hop off in Selma or Fresno and enjoy a Rally's Big Buford with Bacon.

The exception is in Stockton - I usually cut over on CA 4 to I-5 and go in from there, since I tend to get hung up in Galt.

Somehow the lyric "oh, Lord, stuck in Galt again" doesn't quite have the same cachet as the town to the south that turned up in that old Creedence song.  Then, again, the Fogerty brothers originally hailed from Lodi, so there's that!

[Max Rockatansky]

As someone who does greater LA to Sact'o about monthly for business purposes, my mental health is much better on CA 99 than I-5. I don't like the long spaces between exits, it's dreary dull, it seems lousier with truck traffic, and it's just two lanes. Kettleman City used to be my go-to stop when I used I-5 for the Bay Area, but now that I'm all central I hop off in Selma or Fresno and enjoy a Rally's Big Buford with Bacon.

The exception is in Stockton - I usually cut over on CA 4 to I-5 and go in from there, since I tend to get hung up in Galt.

99 is far more mentally engaging and definitely more interesting to look at given the older features.  I've also noticed that I can get away with faster speeds on 99 than I-5 given so much traffic is driving above the limit.  I-5 is pretty dull aside from the winters when the Diablo Range tends to green up and has some impressive weather overheard. 

[ClassicHasClass]

Between work and in-laws I'm back and forth between San Jose and L.A. about six times a year. We prefer US-101

I like US 101 for the Bay Area too, though I'm coming out of greater LA, which means dealing with I-210 or I-10 WB at hours I'd prefer not to be.

My current preference is CA 58-CA 99-CA 46-US 101 (i.e., via Bakersfield), which dumps me off in SLO. When the widening project on CA 46 gets complete west of I-5, that's gonna be so nice. The existing expressway up to the Kern-SLO county line is already wonderful.

[mrsman]

^^^^^^^^^^
Back when I was a map-happy kid growing up in the '50's, a like-minded buddy and I sat down and calculated the distance (we didn't particularly trust the distance grids supplied with the maps) from the 4-level in L.A. to the US 40/50 junction with US 101 in S.F., and found that it was about 406 miles via US 99, SSR 120, and US 50 (via Fresno & Manteca) vs. 427 miles straight up US 101 (using Bypass 101 in the Bay Area).   Even with "cutting the corner" above Santa Barbara via SSR 154 and the then-unsigned Los Olivos shortcut (part of LRN 80), it was still 9 miles longer via the coastal route.  It was then that I realized the significance of the '57 I-5 reroute up the West Side -- cutting the distance between the urban giants even more (albeit at the expense of Valley population centers).

Indeed the reroute of I-5 along the west side was significant.

According to Google Maps, the distance between the junction of Hollywood, Santa Ana, and Harbor Freeways, and the west endpoint of Interstate 80, is about 382 miles- about 20 miles shorter than using the 99.

Of course, sometimes in January and February, the 101 route is faster.

I did use Gogle Maps to find the road distance between Sacramento and Los Angeles along the 5 as compared to the 99, and the distance difference is only two miles! It is clear that traffic between the Bay Area and L.A. was the primary consideration is building I-5 on the west side- it would not have been done just to save two miles from the L.A.-Sacramento road trip!

On first blush, it seems that this would be a perfect discussion for the "Geographic oddities thread" (off-topic) that the 382 miles via the indirect 5-580-80 route is shorter than simply connecting via 101 at 427 miles.  But when you think about it, I-5 (and much of I-580) benefits from the fact that the route is nearly straight as an arrow, while 101 curves around the ocean and meets up with specific routes following the El Camino Real.  But it hard to believe that you save 40 miles. It is not hard to believe that I-5 is faster, but one would likely think that that is due mainly from being able to bypass all those towns and traffic along the 101 route.


https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=16931.0

[sparker]

^^^^^^^^^
A sizeable part of the reason both I-5 and CA 99 tend to provide a much faster ride than US 101 is the fact that on NB I-5 one is essentially in "open territory" once past Castaic, which is about 43 miles north of downtown Los Angeles, whereas US 101 is functionally in suburban territory (despite the relatively open/rugged terrain between Ventura and Carpinteria) for about 110 miles -- at the west end of Goleta.  That entire segment is regularly subject to congestion, so it thus takes about a quarter of the total mileage between L.A. and S.F via US 101 to get past the "sphere of influence" regarding greater L.A. traffic.  And on the other end, it's pretty much a wash with either US 101 or I-5/580; both corridors hit chokepoints (Gilroy and Altamont, respectively) well before getting into the urbanized heart of the Bay Area. 

And regarding the differences in travel efficiency between I-5 and CA 99 once in the Valley, it is true that congestion in & around the towns CA 99 passes through seems to be getting worse with time -- and as the population of those towns increases -- which is an issue that I-5 does not currently have from Wheeler Ridge to Tracy; periodic congestion (often related to holiday traffic) is simply a matter of too many vehicles for too little road.   Unless the "master plan" schedule for CA 99 upgrading (6 lanes minimum throughout) is accelerated (which is unlikely at this point), it might be that any time-related parity between the corridors will simply disappear as 99 congestion expands -- and if time and speed are the primary consideration, I-5 will be again regarded as the "hands-down" corridor of choice, even regarding L.A. - Sacramento traffic.