The Great Santa Monica Exodus

Santa Monica loves to tout itself as one of the nation's most sustainable, pedestrian friendly cities. What they don't tell you is that the burgeoning business parks in it's Mid-city section spawn an environmental and transportation nightmare come 5 o'clock each business day. Simply put, the number of available jobs abound, but affordable housing options--especially for families--are next to non-existant in Santa Moinca as well as the surrounding areas of Venice, Mar Vista and West Los Angeles. The end result is that the overwhelming majority of people who work in Santa Monica do not live there; In fact, recent surveys have put that number as high as 4 million.This lethal combination of abundant jobs and unaffordable housing has created such a pressing transportation and environmental nightmare that in 1990 the city enacted TMP Ordinance 1604: a measure which essentially forced employers to submit transportation plans and pay a per-employee fee that decreases with the size of the company.
And while studies have shown that this has kept this situation from reaching epidemic proportions, the map above still remains the reality: any eastbound route out of Santa Monica during rush hour is completely fucked. San Vicente and Ohio are your best options to avoid it, but if you notice Venice and Washington move at this time as they lead out of Venice, not Santa Monica. Though most of the routes highlighted in red are bad, Sunset can be especially shitty. As early as 4pm I have seen pretty heavy traffic starting at around Barrington; but like clockwork the traffic intensifies and stretches clear back to Bundy once 5 rolls around. I would love if there was some amazing shortcut I could give you to circumvent this clusterfuck, but unfortunately you're a bit up the creek on this one. Traffic is still bad on Wilshire, but at least you can cut the distance to the 405 a bit by taking San Viciente through Brentwood and making a left on Wilshire. If the 405 is your reason for traveling this way be prepared to hit even more bad traffic(especially North). If you're just looking to get to the other side of the freeway, sadly you're a bit screwed during this time too. Ohio St.(just south of the Veterans Center) is most likely your best bet, but traffic can be quite bad there too. However, if there's one moral, one morsel of information that is to be gleaned from this it is this: AVOID GOING WEST OUT OF BRENTWOOD AND SANTA MONICA FROM 4-730 ON WEEKDAYS!!!!