Awful traffic to/from LV? Normal?

Is this normal?

Heading SB on i15 out of Vegas, going to LA......been dead stopped for 25 minutes now.

This has happened to me before. But not this long. Looks like there's an accident about 1.5 to 2 miles ahead of me..... :( Can't really complain. Rather be in traffic than a horrible accident.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say Holiday weekend. 4th of July weekend is perhaps the busiest driving holiday of the year. Everyone travels at more or less the same time. As opposed to say Thanksgiving or Christmas time where more people travel in total, but it's spread out over a longer period of time. Lots of gridlock here on the east coast today too. I-95 was a parking lot in both Baltimore and Washington today.

Dead stopped for 25 minutes is not normal.

If the accident is just 1.5 to 2 miles ahead of you, that's good. That means you'll soon be passed it and things should be okay. If instead the accident was 15 or 20 miles ahead of you, for example, you could expect to see delays for a much longer period of time.

Several years ago, while traveling TO Vegas on the I-15, traffic was dead stopped for more than an hour. Ouch. We were all getting out of our cars, walking around. climbing the nearby hills, chatting, etc. (A large truck had overturned, and all lanes north were blocked.) To this day, I still remember that incident each time I pass by that area where I stopped.

Drive safe the rest of the way.

I live in the Chicago market. Leaving Chicago on any holiday weekend is a nightmare, whether you are heading towards the Indiana or Michigan Dunes or off to Wisconsin. While being stopped for close to half an hour is not a normal thing, usually when a traffic situation is such that you are parked on the Interstate for that long indicates something pretty serious, perhaps a loss of life or someone being in critical condition.

Quote: RS

Is this normal?

Heading SB on i15 out of Vegas, going to LA......been dead stopped for 25 minutes now.

This has happened to me before. But not this long. Looks like there's an accident about 1.5 to 2 miles ahead of me..... :( Can't really complain. Rather be in traffic than a horrible accident.

This is not normal. The traffic today/tomorrow will be N., not S. Clearly an accident, most likely fatal. They have to wait for the coroner before re-opening, which can take hours. If you can find your way off the freeway, then there are some easy back roads from where you are to get around it.

Just found this about 10 mi. South of Primm:

Fire Southbound
Car Fire

Started: July 2 2015 1:20 PM
Updated: July 2 2015 2:26 P

Oh say can you see... Apparently it did involve a commotion that was little more toasty & festively colorful than just the average Thursday afternoon I-15 carnage:

LV Sun: Van full of fireworks catches fire near Primm, closes freeway

Quote:

They drove by at 15 mph, watching sparks and "psychedelic" explosions coming from the van parked on the side of the freeway.

Quote:

The van driver fled before authorities arrived and hasn't been found.

But if you're gonna torch a truck full of recreational explosives, I'd vote for Primm/Stateline as an excellent place to do it, from where I sit. Which is not camped out with half of LA on that freeway, next to a semi-truck full of formerly frozen fish or something. Maybe not as perfect as doing the same in say Barstow or near the giant thermometer at Baker, but a pretty good choice if you're gonna go snap-crackle-pop & run away into the desert. In fact the short piece in the link describing the festivities could be good for minutes of slightly entertaining head-scratching if you aren't one who was stuck there or trying to get that way. If you were, hope you packed refreshments & sun screen.

Edc people broke and busted out
Vegas dealers leaving back home for the 4th

Yup. That was it. I saw the toasty truck.....scary..

And yeah, I knew SB traffic wouldn't be normal on a Thursday. Just didn't know if the deadlock / everyone getting out of their cars thing was normal. That was the 3rd time I've been in that kinda situation (where everything stops for a good chunk of time and people walk around). One time I actually stood up inside my car through the sun roof, to smoke a cigarette "inside" my car.

I was once stuck on the south bound side between Baker and Barstow for about two hours. Never did find out why. Lots of other cars trying to make a u-turn in the median and got stuck in the sand.

On a normal day traffic can be stop and go the whole way between Barstow and Primm, where there are two lanes only in each direction. A secret I hate to let out of the bag is to take the frontage roads at such times. You'll fly right past it all.

Crazy stuff. The longest delay I've even been in is an hour, been a bit lucky in that regard i think. *knocks on wood*

About 12 years back I was driving to LV very early in the morning. 100 yards past the Primm N. on/off-ramp traffic came to a dead stop. News came down that there had been a fatal accident around Jean and traffic had been stopped already for 3 hours (11 mile backup). The coroner was probably another 2 hours from showing up, never mind the 11 miles of backup that would have to get going. I managed to go down the onramp in the wrong direction and pull into Primm Valley resorts. I thought I would just wait it out, but I asked about back roads. I was told that Las Vegas Blvd started in Primm, where it was a dirt road about 1 mile inland into the desert. So I set out in my wife's Nissan Sentra, straight into the desert East of Primm. I found it! Turns out it was pretty good, so I managed to get up to about 50 MPH. The problem was that about every 1/2 mile or so there was a wash with thick sand and rocks, so I would go bouncing around. Probably 20 MPH was a better speed. The car bottomed out lots of times, but in the end, I managed to make it to Jean and get back on 15 North, beating all the traffic.

I felt very proud of myself until the "Check Engine Light" came on about 10 minutes later. I ignored it, but on the trip back home the Sentra dumped all its oil on the 15 at about Cima road (25 miles N. of Baker). I was towed to Baker where I was told it would be at least a day to fix the car. I got a hotel for the night, and the next day they said another day. I ended up hitch hiking back to Las Vegas where I rented a U-Haul with a hitch. I drove the U-Haul to Baker then got my car from the garage (still hadn't been fixed), where they charged me $80 for "storage." I ended up towing the car back to Santa Barbara. I took it to a garage and it cost another $300 to fix it. With the tow charge, the hotel charge, the U-Haul, the $80 and the $300 to fix the car, I actually wasn't that bummed out. At least I beat the traffic!

That sucks about the "check engine light", but man I hate to be stuck in traffic. As long as traffic is moving its no big deal, but completely stopped is frustrating. I probably would have risked it if I was driving a pick-up or SUV, but not a Sentra.

At least you didn't have to deal with this.

Fire Closes I-15 In Cajon Pass; Burns Vehicles Stopped On Freeway

The southbound side remains closed to all traffic other than the motorists being escorted, Carapia said.
The CHP has taken water to stranded motorists, he added.
There is no timeline for when the highway will reopen.


http://www.myfoxla.com/story/29576016/north-fire-closes-i-15-freeway-in-cajon-pass

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-fire-in-cajon-pass-20150717-story.html