[quote=UCGal]I have to agree with AN here. In the 80’s I lived downtown and commuted to Oceanside. This was before a lot of businesses moved to Carlsbad and it was definitely a reverse commute. I went 40 miles in 40 minutes because it was a 95% freeway commute and the freeway moved in my direction and was a parking lot in the opposite direction.

That changed signficantly in the 90’s… It’s now a parking lot in both directions during commute times. I have friends who live in my neighborhood (University City) where one person commutes to Carlsbad – it’s NOT a reverse commute – it’s stop and go traffic as they head north in the morning, and south in the evening. My husband had a job near El Camino and Carmel Valley Rd in 2001/2002… it took him 30 minutes to go less than 10 miles because of traffic.[/quote]

UCGal, I too commuted for six months from the downtown area on the 5 to SV for a temporary assignment when there were only 3 companies on SV Rd which was a dead end. The year was 1980. All the traffic was coming towards dtn in the a.m. About 1-2x month I currently leave for dtn about 7:30 a.m. on the 5, get into the typical NC jam and about 7:50 to 7:55, make a turnoff onto northbound 163 (bottleneck ramp in Balboa Park). Once I enter 163 just before 8:00 a.m. it is clear going northbound and a parking lot going southbound getting into dtn. I either exit Genessee East or Clairemont Mesa East and the northbound side of 163 moves all the way.

As to the 5, there are few jobs in Old Town, Mission Bay area and La Jolla (NOT UTC) and very few commuters emanating from those areas and Pt. Loma, OB (retired).

Navy workers going to Pt. Loma typically take Harbor Dr. to Nimitz to Rosecrans (surface sts).

Where does the northbound 5/163 start to hang up in the morning? If this “parking lot” doesn’t begin until UTC, then it really doesn’t affect me. It’s just a function of a lot of worker-commuters living in UTC area (a very dense environment) :=)