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- Super Bowl LVI traffic is truly unfathomable.
- Driving in Los Angeles is never fun, but it is even worse than usual this weekend.
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Traffic in Los Angeles is rarely better than tolerable. Between the hours of 7:00am and 10:00am and 4:00pm and 7:00pm it is miserable, bumper-to-bumper traffic, and throughout the rest of the day it is a little bit better, but still not great.
Now add in the Super Bowl.
After the global pandemic largely kept tourism to Los Angeles below where it may have been in years prior, it is hosting the biggest sporting event in America. At least 150,000 out-of-town tourists are expected to descend upon the city this weekend with many of them having already arrived.
In some ways, the fact that the hometown Rams are in the game may help keep that number down, but it’s still very, very busy. In addition, many the Angelenos who may not have ventured out as often over the last few years are heading out to attend events all over the city.
As a result, traffic is even worse than usual. And that’s hard to do.
Where there may be a slight gap in traffic during the day and later at night when the Super Bowl is not being held in Los Angeles, that is not the case at the moment. The freeways and backroads are packed at all hours of the day.
The 405 NEVER disappoints if you're looking for horrendous LA traffic. It's 11 in the morning…#405 #latraffic #SuperBowl #NFL @SuperBowl "who dey say they're gonna beat that traffic jam?! " Nooooobody! #WhoDey #WHODEYNATION pic.twitter.com/JBPvimSlWZ
— Gary Miller (@Local12Gary) February 11, 2022
In particular, Friday night was bananas.
Here is what it normally looks like at around 5:30pm on a Friday:
It’s terrible, but not rip-your-hair-out unbearable — although it can definitely get close.
On Friday night, two days before the Super Bowl, it was even worse. It’s almost hard to imagine, but it was.
I’m never (probably a lie) complaining about Baton Rouge traffic ever again. pic.twitter.com/gBNKk53gLP
— Hilary Scheinuk (@hscheinukphoto) February 12, 2022
This is LA lol pic.twitter.com/IAjpQbBBfF
— V 💙 (@PlatinumV_) February 12, 2022
LA traffic 🤪 pic.twitter.com/i17bs8skdZ
— DUNC (@followdunc) February 12, 2022
https://twitter.com/Jcturner123/status/1492303008859709440
https://twitter.com/atribecalledval/status/1492270934677282816
In Los Angeles, on a typical, off-hours, midweek day, it might take 30 minutes to get somewhere. During an on-hours, Friday, that same drive might take 45 minutes to an hour— sometimes even more.
This weekend, according to people with boots on the ground, that same drive might take an hour to an hour and a half — if not more — this weekend.