One of my wife's best friends used to commute from Carlsbad to Irvine every day. She was a day trader so she had to leave well before the traffic builds but that's 70 miles one way. Carlsbad is North County San Diego (where I live). San Diego to Santa Monica would be more like 135 miles one way in some of the worst traffic in the nation.
(just saw your edit so just requoting it)
the first time i went to SD i stayed in carlsbad, i liked it there.
the last time i went last november was in 92128, which i also really enjoyed. we were like 15 minutes drive from del mar beach which was a fun time.
oh also, my current time to work is 6:30 - 2:30, so if i moved out there, i'd like to try and get the same type of schedule, which is usually pretty easy to do as a developer since you can basically do your work whenever you need to. i'd miss all traffic at those times for the most part, but still i wouldn't want more than a 30 minute commute.
i'm in the DMV area right around 495 which is arguably has the worst traffic in the country, so i'm used to this shit, but i hate it.