Oh, there’s going to be traffic in L.A., you say? And on a Friday during evening rush hour? Who could’ve foreseen such a shocking turn of events?!
Yes, the freeways are always busy on Friday nights—especially around fall and winter holidays—and the frenzy of “traffic nightmare” headlines swirling around social media might be a little too panicky, but even we have to admit that this Friday is shaping up to be a headache.
Here’s the deal: There are three major events in and near Downtown L.A. and three others in Inglewood all scheduled to start within a few hours of each other, and that’s in addition to an absolutely packed slate of Halloween events.
Let’s start with the 110 in and around DTLA. The Dodgers will play the Yankees at Dodger Stadium, and we’d guess that not even the first game of the World Series can get notoriously late Angelenos into their seats before the 5:08pm first pitch—so expect backups along the freeway and in Echo Park and Chinatown well past then.
A few miles south, the Lakers, in only their second game of the NBA regular season, will take on the Suns at the Crypto.com Arena at 7pm. And though Saturday will be a far busier night for Halloween and Day of the Dead events, Friday will bring KCRW’s Masquerade Ball and a live scoring of Dracula to the immediate area. And a little farther down the freeway, USC will host Rutgers at the Coliseum at 8pm (an exhaustingly late start for any college football fans in New Jersey).
So how can you avoid that DTLA traffic snarl? Stay home and watch the Dodgers, of course. But if you will be out and about, Metro’s light rail lines more or less service all three of those spots; for Chavez Ravine, you’ll need to transfer to the free Dodger Stadium Express shuttle or, uh, walk.
As for Inglewood, Garfield and Roosevelt’s high school football teams will play each other in the East L.A. Classic at SoFi Stadium at 7:30pm. You’ll also find a pair of arena-sized concerts starting around the same time on either side of the stadium: Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour at Intuit Dome at 7:30pm and Jeff Lynne’s ELO at the Kia Forum at 8pm.
Surface streets will be the most heavily impacted there, and your public transit alternatives are basically equivalent to the shrug emoji (Metro’s express connector shuttles mostly only operate during NFL and NBA games). Intuit Dome does at least provide a free park and ride shuttle from five locations across L.A., as well as a short-distance shuttle that operates within six miles of the arena.
So to recap, here are the spots to avoid:
DTLA:
Dodgers vs. Yankees at Dodger Stadium – 5:08pm
Lakers vs. Suns at Crypto.com Arena – 7pm
USC vs. Rutgers at L.A. Memorial Coliseum – 8pm
Inglewood:
East L.A. Classic at SoFi Stadium – 7:30pm
David Gilmour at Intuit Dome – 7:30pm
Jeff Lynne’s ELO at Kia Forum – 8pm