Southern California 91 at Night?

[JadesFire]

My husband and I are planning a trip to Disneyland in September and just realized that his sister-in-law's due date is right around the time of our trip, so if the baby is born before we leave, we'd like to go visit his family to meet the new baby. We are planning on checking out of our hotel on a Thursday and spending the day in the park, going either all the way to closing or nearly all the way to closing so that we can avoid the traffic. Our original plan was to drive up to the Glendale area and stay with my in-laws for a day, but now, with the baby, we could very well end up going to Redlands instead.

It looks like the shortest route from Disneyland to Redlands is to take 91, but neither of us is very familiar with the whole stretch there (my husband used to take short hops on it as a shortcut when going home from northern San Diego county, but that was the bit around Corona). What's the freeway like in the less inhabited areas? We've inadvertently ended up on slightly terrifying freeways (138 through the desert) after dark trying to avoid Thanksgiving traffic, and would very much like to avoid a repeat of that experience... Would it be better to drive north and then take 10 over? Or will 91 be fine in the dark?

 

[pharmama]

I am not sure exactly what you found terrifying about your previous experience, but there isn't really any section of the 91 I would call uninhabited. Usually the biggest problem with the 91 is its resemblance to a parking lot. Hopefully that will be less of any issue later in the evening for you.

 

[JadesFire]

I am not sure exactly what you found terrifying about your previous experience, but there isn't really any section of the 91 I would call uninhabited. Usually the biggest problem with the 91 is its resemblance to a parking lot. Hopefully that will be less of any issue later in the evening for you.

Well, 138 is a 2 lane highway with oncoming traffic. It's not the widest road in the world, and it's hilly (by which I mean that it has a lot of small hills and dips), which meant that you could get a bit blinded when oncoming cars came over the hills. Plus there were a lot of cars (traffic flowed at a steady rate, though) and construction, and the lots of cars (and trucks, decent number of trucks) did not tend to stick to the speed limit. In daylight, it probably would not have been all that bad, but it was very dark, and we were both thoroughly relieved to get back onto a proper freeway when we got onto 15.

But if 91 is a decently normal freeway (I know there's a few stoplights along the way), then it should be fine, especially since you say it's not really uninhabited. Provided that Google Maps' traffic patterns for Thursday nights isn't lying, most of the greater LA area should be clear enough at that point.

 

[pharmama]

The 91 is a multi-lane divided freeway. No stoplights. Just look at the satellite view on google maps.

I'm not sure how long its been since your husband drove on the 91, but its now a MAJOR thoroughfare between the heavily populated Inland Empire and North Orange County/South Los Angeles.