The Ventura Freeway is a freeway in southern California running from Ventura to Pasadena. It is the principal east-west route through Ventura County and in the southern San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County. From Ventura to its intersection with the Hollywood Freeway in the southeastern San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, it is signed as U.S. Highway 101. East of the Hollywood Freeway intersection, it is signed as California State Highway 134 .

Prior to the construction of a new alignment in the 1970s, the portion east of the Hollywood Freeway was known as the Colorado Freeway in reference to nearby Colorado Boulevard, a historic thoroughfare in Pasadena and northeastern Los Angeles.

The route

The freeway begins in Ventura at the junction of U.S. 101--which alternates between a freeway, an expressway, and an ordinary divided highway previous to this point--with the Santa Paula Freeway (California State Highway 126). East of this point, U.S. 101 is known as the Ventura Freeway. It travels eastward through the citrus orchards and strawberry fields of the Oxnard Plain before ascending a short, steep pass into the Conejo Valley. Continuing eastward through the northern Santa Monica Mountains, it crosses the Ventura/Los Angeles county line before entering the San Fernando Valley. The freeway continues eastward along the valley's southern rim, crossing two freeways and the Los Angeles River. After crossing the Verdugo Mountains , it enters Pasadena and terminates at the Foothill Freeway.

The Ventura Freeway suffers from severe congestion. Its intersection with the San Diego Freeway, in Sherman Oaks, is consistently rated as one of the five most congested interchanges in the nation; the Hollywood Freeway junction is also notably congested. During events at the Rose Bowl, the freeway's eastern portions often resemble a parking lot.

The Ventura Freeway in popular culture

"Ventura Highway" is the title of a 1972 hit by America. The freeway "runnin' through the yard" in Tom Petty's 1989 hit, "Free Fallin'," is probably the Ventura Freeway.

Communities served

Communities along the Ventura Freeway include:

• Ventura
• Oxnard
• Camarillo
• Moorpark
• Thousand Oaks
• Westlake Village
• Agoura Hills
• Calabasas
• Woodland Hills
• Tarzana
• Encino
• Sherman Oaks
• Studio City
• Toluca Lake
• Burbank
• Glendale
• Pasadena

Major intersections

Freeways intersecting the Ventura Freeway include:

• Santa Paula Freeway
• San Diego Freeway
• Hollywood Freeway
• Golden State Freeway
• Glendale Freeway
• Foothill Freeway