Routing - Victorville, CA to Santa Monica Pier

A friend recently asked me how I would direct a group of antique
vehicles to get from Victorville to the Santa Monica Pier. My answer
was to follow the former routings of US-66 - that seems most
appropriate.

No, the vehicles are street legal but are incapable of freeway speeds,
so the short segment of I-15 through Cajon Pass where there is no
alternate route eliminates that route from consideration. They also
want to avoid steep hills (up or down) and heavily travelled routes
like CA-138 where the antique vehicles would impede the flow of
traffic.

My current suggested route includes Air Expressway, El Mirage Road,
Soledad Canyon Road, Sierra Hightway, Balboa Blvd, Rinaldi Street,
Woodley Avenue, Burbank Blvd, Sepulveda Blvd, Sunset Blvd, Bundy
Drive, San Vicente Blvd, Ocean Avenue, Colorado Avenue, the pier. I
haven't listed every road that is part of my suggested route, just
enough to make my plan clear.

Any alternative suggestions that don't add significant extra mileage
or time would be appreciated. I especially would like an alternative
for crossing through Palmdale without the use of their high-speed high-
traffic roads (Pearblossom Hwy), an alternative through Sherman Oaks
that avoids the Ventura/Sepulveda intersection, and any portion where
you think you can improve the drive by avoiding heavy traffic.

On 02/10/2010 12:34 PM, larry_scholnick wrote:

> A friend recently asked me how I would direct a group of antique
> vehicles to get from Victorville to the Santa Monica Pier. My answer
> was to follow the former routings of US-66 - that seems most
> appropriate.
>
> No, the vehicles are street legal but are incapable of freeway speeds,
> so the short segment of I-15 through Cajon Pass where there is no
> alternate route eliminates that route from consideration.

I believe that bicycles are allowed to use that segment (no alternative route),
so antique cars should certainly be acceptable. Ask Caltrans, they ought to know.

Is there normally a lot of inbound traffic through the pass in the morning?

--
Cheers, Bev
Far away in a strange land

"larry_scholnick" > wrote in message
...
> A friend recently asked me how I would direct a group of antique
> vehicles to get from Victorville to the Santa Monica Pier. My answer
> was to follow the former routings of US-66 - that seems most
> appropriate.
>
> No, the vehicles are street legal but are incapable of freeway speeds,
> so the short segment of I-15 through Cajon Pass where there is no
> alternate route eliminates that route from consideration. They also
> want to avoid steep hills (up or down) and heavily travelled routes
> like CA-138 where the antique vehicles would impede the flow of
> traffic.
>
> My current suggested route includes Air Expressway, El Mirage Road,
> Soledad Canyon Road, Sierra Hightway, Balboa Blvd, Rinaldi Street,
> Woodley Avenue, Burbank Blvd, Sepulveda Blvd, Sunset Blvd, Bundy
> Drive, San Vicente Blvd, Ocean Avenue, Colorado Avenue, the pier. I
> haven't listed every road that is part of my suggested route, just
> enough to make my plan clear.

1) Balboa and Sepulveda are parallel, so only one E-W street is needed,
not 3 streets.
Lassen, Plumber, or Van Owen may be quiet enough. Keep it simple.
2) Sepulveda + Sunset: You need to take Church Lane. The 2 streets don't
intersect.
Sunset passes OVER Sepulveda. Only WB to NB exists (for freeway
access).
3) Sunset - Bundy - San Vicente is dangerous where Bundy and Kenter merge.
Bundy SB requires a LT across the NB traffic - controlled by a blind
stop sign.
I suggest Sunset - Barrington - Montana (optional; saves 4 blocks) -
San Vicente.
Slightly shorter too (0.1 miles), plus traffic signals at every
street-change. Safer.
4) Colorado is redundant. If one is ON Ocean, the Colorado intersection
IS the Pier entrance.

> Any alternative suggestions that don't add significant extra mileage
> or time would be appreciated. I especially would like an alternative
> for crossing through Palmdale without the use of their high-speed high-
> traffic roads (Pearblossom Hwy), an alternative through Sherman Oaks
> that avoids the Ventura/Sepulveda intersection, and any portion where
> you think you can improve the drive by avoiding heavy traffic.

Ventura + Sepulveda cannot be signficantly avoided. There is a back-way on
the west side of I-405 from Ventura to Sepulveda, but that means taking
Balboa all the way south to Ventura, then sneaking through a neighborhood
to emerge at Sepulveda (just before the I-405 south entrance), but that's
not really for people not familiar with the area.

Santa Monica has made changes to San Vicente:
At 7th, right (center) lane only continues to the Ocean. (new)
At Ocean, left lane only permits SB travel.

On Feb 10, 2:25*pm, The Real Bev > wrote:
> On 02/10/2010 12:34 PM, larry_scholnick wrote:
>
> > A friend recently asked me how I would direct a group of antique
> > vehicles to get from Victorville to the Santa Monica Pier. *My answer
> > was to follow the former routings of US-66 - that seems most
> > appropriate.
>
> > No, the vehicles are street legal but are incapable of freeway speeds,
> > so the short segment of I-15 through Cajon Pass where there is no
> > alternate route eliminates that route from consideration.
>
> I believe that bicycles are allowed to use that segment (no alternative route),
> so antique cars should certainly be acceptable. *Ask Caltrans, they ought to know.
>
> Is there normally a lot of inbound traffic through the pass in the morning?
>
My friend's agreement with these folks is that the route will not
include freeways, even in situations like this where bicycles are
allowed; besides, once you go through Cajon Pass you're stuck with
miles and miles of city traffic in San Bernardino and Los Angeles
counties. The desert route I've outlined avoids populated areas for
much of the route.

Wow. A desire to avoid both freeways *and* hills is tough on that
city pair. Not sure I can come up with a better routing than what
you've outlined (whoever suggested calling Caltrans had a good idea
too -- and you might want to touch base with the Highway Patrol
too).

How antique and incapable are they? Are we talking "brass cars" and
chain-drive trucks here, or just a desire to be extra nice to some
older unrestored machinery?

Any chance you can pick off-peak hours, and get on the walkie-talkie
and pull the whole convoy off to the shoulder on Pearblossom as
courtesy and the view in the mirrors dictate?

How about getting a tow truck to bring up the rear with its yellow
lights on, and coordinate this? (You'd presumably want one as a "sag
wagon" anyway, in case one of the antiques needs roadside repair or
just simply isn't going to make it under its own power.)

How long a string of vehicles are we talking about, and can you break
it up into multiple efforts?

Just some thoughts, worth what you paid if your ISP is inexpensive,
--Joe

> "larry_scholnick" > wrote
>
>A friend recently asked me how I would direct a group of antique
> vehicles to get from Victorville to the Santa Monica Pier. My answer
> was to follow the former routings of US-66 - that seems most
> appropriate.
>
> No, the vehicles are street legal but are incapable of freeway speeds,
> so the short segment of I-15 through Cajon Pass where there is no
> alternate route eliminates that route from consideration. They also
> want to avoid steep hills (up or down) and heavily travelled routes
> like CA-138 where the antique vehicles would impede the flow of
> traffic.
>
> My current suggested route includes Air Expressway, El Mirage Road,
> Soledad Canyon Road, Sierra Hightway, Balboa Blvd, Rinaldi Street,
> Woodley Avenue, Burbank Blvd, Sepulveda Blvd, Sunset Blvd, Bundy
> Drive, San Vicente Blvd, Ocean Avenue, Colorado Avenue, the pier. I
> haven't listed every road that is part of my suggested route, just
> enough to make my plan clear.
>
> Any alternative suggestions that don't add significant extra mileage
> or time would be appreciated. I especially would like an alternative
> for crossing through Palmdale without the use of their high-speed high-
> traffic roads (Pearblossom Hwy), an alternative through Sherman Oaks
> that avoids the Ventura/Sepulveda intersection, and any portion where
> you think you can improve the drive by avoiding heavy traffic.

I was thinking basically the same thing, as soon as I saw the subject line,
because that's more or less how I drive home from Victorville (except that I
take I-405, because the SFV surface roads are a bore).

I assume you included Palmdale Blvd in the route. I usually take 90th down
to Ave. T, which becomes Pearblossom at Four Points. There's some traffic on
the few miles of Pearblossom and Sierra until you get to CA-14, but they're
four-lane roads, so the rest of the traffic can get by.

There are lots of little streets you can take in the Sherman Oaks/Encino
area, but to lead a caravan through would be pretty difficult. If you take
Burbank over to Sepulveda, then you'll at least be going straight across
Ventura, which at worst would break the caravan, but that's likely to happen
in lots of other places too.

--

Ciao, Paul D. DeRocco
Paul mailto

In article <567a09fb-0e36-4978-8b53-9216d08ab183
@p13g2000pre.googlegroups.com>, says...
>
> A friend recently asked me how I would direct a group of antique
> vehicles to get from Victorville to the Santa Monica Pier. My answer
> was to follow the former routings of US-66 - that seems most
> appropriate.

Yes, but it's also a rather circuituous route.


> No, the vehicles are street legal but are incapable of freeway speeds,
> so the short segment of I-15 through Cajon Pass where there is no
> alternate route eliminates that route from consideration. They also
> want to avoid steep hills (up or down) and heavily travelled routes
> like CA-138 where the antique vehicles would impede the flow of
> traffic.

But they want to go from Victorville to Santa Monica.

My first question is, what are they smoking?

In order to avoid steep hills and Interstates, I think you'd have to go
into Lucerne Valley, hit CA-247, head into Yucca Valley and hit CA-62...
an outrageous amount of driving... and even then, once you get to the
end of CA-62 I'm not sure which way you'd go. And I'm not 100% sure CA-
62 lacks any steep grades.


> My current suggested route includes Air Expressway, El Mirage Road,

El Mirage Road to what? Once you hit Los Angeles County, that road
becomes 260th Street East and you can get to Palmdale or Lancaster that
way. But the major Antelope Valley highways are all 45-55mph, if I
recall correctly. If the paved part of El Mirage Road isn't at least
50mph, I'd be surprised.

My wife lived in Lake Los Angeles for a few years, when she was younger.
I'll ask her, maybe she'll have some ideas.


--
Steve Sobol, Victorville, California, USA

> "Steve Sobol" > wrote
>
> In order to avoid steep hills and Interstates, I think you'd have to go
> into Lucerne Valley, hit CA-247, head into Yucca Valley and hit CA-62...
> an outrageous amount of driving... and even then, once you get to the
> end of CA-62 I'm not sure which way you'd go. And I'm not 100% sure CA-
> 62 lacks any steep grades.

It has a fairly steep downgrade near the end. But there is no way to get
from the west end of CA-62 into the Inland Empire without actually getting
on I-10.

--

Ciao, Paul D. DeRocco
Paul mailto