A view of the eastbound 56 freeway, then turn north on I-5 at 5:30 in the afternoon:
Jim Klinge
Klinge Realty Group
Broker-Associate, Compass
Are you looking for an experienced agent to help you buy or sell a home?
Contact Jim the Realtor!
- 682 S. Coast Hwy 101, Suite #110
Encinitas, CA 92024 - (858) 997-3801 call or text
- klingerealty@gmail.com
CA DRE #01527365, CA DRE #00873197
Caltrans doesn’t even have to run another lane on I-5 between 56 & Via de la Valle. The ramp wasn’t backed up per your video, but the freeway was, therefore they need to increase the delay between cars at the ramp traffic metering light.
There’s a lot of ways around that traffic if you’re commuting from Sorrento Valley, but there’s no denying that CV has one of the best commutes in San Diego. I just think that it’s not really that much better door to door. My commute into PQ adds an extra 10 minutes, but I usually leave work at around 4:45, since I come in early in the morning. However, even when I leave after 5, I-5 to I15 via 56-E seems to take about 15 minutes. Most of that traffic is getting through CV, so I wouldn’t necessarily save that entire 15 minutes.
56 east is only congested for 1.5 hours/day. It’s free-flowing up until approximately 5 PM (I guess a lot of people in Sorrento Valley clock out at 5 or just before?) and the jam quickly dissipates after 6:30 unless it’s raining or there’s an accident further down the road. As JordanT says, it’s only bad I-5 to Carmel Valley Road. Morning westbound commute is worse, because traffic can back up as far as Camino Del Sur.
In my experience, if you have to commute to/from Sorrento Valley or UTC during peak rush hour times, it’s best to avoid 56 altogether. Instead, take Miramar to 15.
Jim, you’re a tailgater! Watch out for us motorcycle riders! There’s no such thing as traffic for us.
“The ramp wasn’t backed up per your video, but the freeway was, therefore they need to increase the delay between cars at the ramp traffic metering light.”
At the same time, the traffic meter needs to be timed so that the queue does not fill up. Traffic meters are good for easing merging problems, but to solve a problem of too much traffic volume takes a different solution. If traffic meters could solve the entire problem, possibly the freeway would only need be one lane wide in each direction?
i-5/56 to 4s is 20-30 mins in rush hour, evenings or mornings. The nice thing is that like you said, you could take del mar heights to CV rd to Camino or run through RSF via Fairbanks and come up on the western side of Santaluz so lots of options.
1-5 north varies by day. Tuesday was a nightmare, took about 25-30 mins to get to lucadia from 56, wednesday took about 12 mins. Depends on the bad drivers and how often they cause accidents.
I still wish they would put in a middle HOV design like they implemented on the 15 north of Carmel mountain ranch. It allows you to go in and out of it and allows single drivers to pay for using it. Just dont know if the 5 has the space for that.
From the Central Coast, wow, just wow!
I’m with Ex-4S renter. If I were a 4S guy, I’d stay off the freeway, go up El Camino Real to San Dieguito Rd. and take that all the way to north Camino Del Sur and then it’s another 5 minutes after that.
You also bypass all 10 lights on I-56/Camino Del Sur.
Jeeman, Ex-4S renter, if you stay off the freeway and take back roads, how long does it take to get to 4S from the 5 during peak times?
The 56 freeway didn’t even exist 10 years ago. Interestingly, the CV premium was much lower then than it is today despite a new corridor that opens up coastal job centers to the high quality PUSD in 92127/92129. Before, you had to take a dirt road to get to PQ/4S Ranch. From what some have said in earlier posts, the high-tech industry has grown near the 15 (I have no idea if this is true) so many well educated, high earning families that live in the newer communities East of CV may not even need to commute this route.
For full disclosure, I’m not looking in 4S or CV. I just have an opinion that the high CV premium (relative to history) is not as sturdy as some have proposed. Sorry if I’m belaboring the point, I’ve just seen way to many people lose their shirt using assumptions based on faulty premises (San Diego housing will never go down because it is sunny = they are not making land anymore = Carmel Valley housing will never go down because a certain demographic values education). I assume Asians are price sensitive or they would place all their children in Francis Day Parker rather than the public school system. If an adjacent neighborhood that offers similar features with high quality education (and improving through self selection) at a more affordable price, why wouldn’t individuals in this community take the opportunity to save several hundred thousand dollars on a home. I assume this is why CV became popular in its early years. As 4S ranch matures, what does this do to the CV premium 5yrs from now?
Maybe someone should ask Pardee Homes at Terramar (PQ new build) what demographic is looking at their offerings. I have some personal anecdotes but will keep them to myself for now.
Jinx – 20 – 30 mins
I-5 will be fixed by 2018-2020 when they do a 1-15 type build and put four car pool lanes in the middle and add a fifth regular lane.
Enjoy the traffic and your kids school.
As to the extra lane on I-56. Wait your turn. There are a lot worse spots in San Diego County.
Your only benfit has been the slower economy. But one day it will pick up and their will be a lot more jobs in the I-5/I805 corridor. Which will make that traffic a lot worse.
Of course you could live south of the area and send you kids to a private school or the La Jolla school district. Scores are just as good as CV area.
Lifes a bitch living in paradise.
The majority of the commute is getting through the CV traffic. I’ve timed just about every back route there is to and from Sorrento Valley, and so far they all take about the same amount of time. It fluctuates primarily based on which lights you hit and whether you want a scenic or freeway route.
4S to CV traffic? 10-15 mins depending on lights.
CV crunch to Sorrento Valley? 5-10 mins depending on what the 56 is doing.
No traffic, it’s about 15 mins.
As for Terramar, I checked those out. Wildly, wildly overpriced IMHO. You can reach out your window and hand your neighbor a bar of soap and that street is goign to be a mess of traffic/noise with the school right there. 5 minutes down the road you can get something so much nicer IMHO for about $100,000+ less.
No doubt they’ll sell every one though, and I saw a single demographic when I was there.
duncbdunc, I attended the grand opening of Terramar back in January and there were hundreds of people there, majority of them Asians and Indians. I remember pointing out to my wife how one Asian kid was sitting at the dining table in of of the model homes doing homework while his parents were touring the house.
this makes me really appreciate my little 15 min. backroad commute from East Oceanside to East Carlsbad
^^So there is a plan to rebuild the I-5 in a few years. I was wondering when they were going to get to it, after rebuilding it around 2000 in Orange County.
Door to Door, commute times from Encinitas Diegueno Middle School (that is inland, east of El Camino Real near the Encinitas/Olivenhein boarder.
Weekday 8:30 AM – Southbound Hwy 5
13 min to Hwy 5/Via del Valle
21 min to Qualcom on Scranton/Moorhouse/Lusk
Weekday 5:00 / 5:30 – Northbound Hwy 5 (from Q)
18 min to Hwy 5/Via del Valle
31 min to Encinitas Diegueno Middle School
What traffic? I won’t give up my secret route 😀