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L.A. Driving

Anonymous Fri 16 Oct 2015 22:57:31 No.1042663 View Reply Report Delete

Quoted By: >>1042815 >>1042829 >>1044206 >>1044342 >>1044441 >>1044978 >>1045103

Sup /trv/.

I'm going to be going to Los Angeles next month for a week with my girlfriend. We're planning on going to Disneyland, Hollywood Blvd., all of the kinda big touristy things since it's our first time there. I'm basically gonna be driving a rental car everywhere - downtown, and on highways.

I've heard that driving there is pretty horrible, and I've been looking up on some of the unwritten rules (turning left on yellow/red lights), but are there any L.A. drivers with any general driving tips, or areas to avoid? I want to be as prepared as possible since I'm gonna be doing the driving.

This is coming from a Seattle driver, where everyone up here is timid and passive aggressive.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 17 Oct 2015 01:23:31 No.1042684 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>1042686 >>1042815 >>1044387

Canadian here. Visited San Diego, LA and SF this year.

Traffic is pretty bad in LA.

Observations:

- ruthlessness on the freeways. Cutting in, tailgating, no signals when changing lanes. Like Fury Road with slightly less fuckers on poles.

- Lane-splitting. Motorcycles allowed to buzz past between cars. Took many days to get used to suddenly having a bike fly past six inches from my side mirror.

- Right turn on red is OK, well-signed when it isn't.

- Insane volume of cars/trucks on freeways.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 17 Oct 2015 01:31:59 No.1042686 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>1042815

>>1042684
Sounds like any large city

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 17 Oct 2015 13:59:30 No.1042815 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>1042686
LA has the #1 worse traffic in the US, its just massive sprawl of a city.

>>1042663
I drove in L.A. pretty recently about a month ago for the weekend, I live in Austin, Texas.
However since every one in major cities in Texas drive like complete morons, LA wasn't bad. The worse part is just the traffic, and it's just that traffic. Saturday at 3pm there would be a few stretches I hit on the interstates that were just congested.
Avoid rush hour if you can, you will just be sitting in your car, hell you'll be sitting in your car a lot if you go to LA. It took about 2.2 hours to Leave from Long Beach to where I was out of traffic on state highway 1, that was less than a 20 mile stretch. That was honestly the worse part.

Hopefully someone with more knowledge will stop in.

>>1042684
>- Insane volume of cars/trucks on freeways.
Yup, I was baffled how an EIGHT lane freeway was just clogged, on a saturday afternoon.

>- Insane volume of cars/trucks on freeways.
Nerve wracking at first, but you get use to it.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 17 Oct 2015 15:34:02 No.1042827 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>1044388

Another thing to keep in mind about LA freeways is the epic tailgating. It's one of the few places where traffic will be bumper-to-bumper clogged, but still going full speed. The times I've been there I've considered it a small miracle that people were ever able to merge.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 17 Oct 2015 15:40:47 No.1042829 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>1044410

>>1042663
I recommend getting an SUV if you can. The driving position as well as the size will help in LA. Being in a compact can be very intimidating. Something like a Ford Explorer or a Grand Cherokee would be perfect.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 18 Oct 2015 02:38:20 No.1042973 Report Delete

Quoted By:

Plan ahead. There's pretty much traffic from 6-8 everyday. Study a damn map, dont just rely on your gps. Know which side the interchanges are. If you're driving in the left lane and theres nothing but empty space ahead of you, you're driving too slow. LA has zero parking, make sure you read street signs when parking in LA. OC is a lot more spacious, but the south OC traffic can get just as bad as LA. If you need to merge in traffic, dont hit your signal and expect people to yield for you, gotta get in where you fit in. This ties to knowing where your interchanges are, because if you try to merge over at the last second, you're gonna have a bad time.

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 19 Oct 2015 00:54:42 No.1043290 Report Delete

Quoted By:

keep right and pass left, if you don't people like me will be up your ass til you do

You will probably have to pay for parking even in most suburbs

it's pretty cool, def visit places like old town pasadena to get something different than suburban sprawl

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 22 Oct 2015 02:19:51 No.1044206 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>1042663
Christ that place looks beautiful

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 22 Oct 2015 16:10:35 No.1044342 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>1044379 >>1044442

>>1042663

Michifag here.

I've never driven in L.A., but I have taken my car out to New York City and Chicago a few times. I've also driven in Istanbul and New Delhi. I can't imagine that Los Angeles would be too different from Manhattan or the Bronx, but you never know.

At any rate, don't stress yourself too much. You'll be forced to pay attention to the road, which is a good thing. Keep up with the flow of traffic, don't let your girlfriend distract you, and make sure you check your mirrors and anticipate what the cars around you are doing. Aggression is always the name of the game in metropolises, so I doubt you'll be able to dilly-dally as much as back home.

Basically, you have to take some very minor risks that might be uncomfortable for somebody not used to a high volume of traffic. Don't be afraid to use your horn, merge with little leeway, or force pedestrians out of crosswalks when you have a light (in the sense that you have to turn, people are crossing the road, and you just keep scooting closer and closer until you can squeeze through).

I was a delivery driver for my first few years of college, so I love driving in big cities - it's a fun challenge, and you get to be an asshat driver in a place full of other asshat drivers. And typically, folks are a lot more aware of their surroundings than in villages where I live, in which dumbasses drive aggressively but also recklessly.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 22 Oct 2015 17:33:08 No.1044378 Report Delete

Quoted By:

Watch out for koreans in white vans.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 22 Oct 2015 17:34:18 No.1044379 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>1044342
La us very different than NYC.

Lots more traffic. Lots more speed lots more congestion.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 22 Oct 2015 18:13:19 No.1044387 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>1042684
Full of shit m8. Gtfo back to Canada where drivers are at least 800% more retarded.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 22 Oct 2015 18:15:18 No.1044388 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>1042827
Please don't come to Europe. At least in the US people dont change their speeds every .4 seconds every 2 seconds. LA has a lot of traffic, but it is a lot more civilized than most other big cities, even in the US.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 22 Oct 2015 19:32:37 No.1044410 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>1042829
>I recommend getting an SUV if you can. The driving position as well as the size will help in LA. Being in a compact can be very intimidating. Something like a Ford Explorer or a Grand Cherokee would be perfect.
I would agree with this, but not too too big that you have trouble handling it. The height matters when traffic is new. Helps to see street signs, lights and all that when streets are new.
I'd avoid the rush hour where you can, to not be trying to go places you know will be a hassle at that time. Might even hotel hop, in order to be closer to what you wish to do, rather than using one hotel as a launch pad the whole time.

I disagree L.A. is #1 worst. I might rank Miami the worst if I had to vote for too many cars on too few roads, but every city has some serious issues that make it unique. A talking GPS goes a long way to give you heads up in places where merging is difficult, such as when there are too many cars, and hard to get over a lane, but also when the merge lanes are crazy short, or when in somewhere like D.C. where if you miss an exit you can't always get off at the next one and work back. Not have properly timed headsup in some cities will cost you miles and far too many minutes to recover.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 22 Oct 2015 21:29:34 No.1044441 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>1042663
>seattle driver

as a southern californian i'm so jealous of the drivers in the northwest. did a roadtrip from sac to whistler once and i was amazed how people got out of the fast lane when i came up behind. that is a RARITY in socal. we also have tons of immigrants with interesting driving habits.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 22 Oct 2015 21:32:40 No.1044442 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>1044342
from what little time i spent in a cab in manhattan it seemed way crazier than la city driving.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 24 Oct 2015 17:18:16 No.1044919 Report Delete

Quoted By:

I've lived in the LA area my whole life. Driving on Hollywood Blvd. will be an experience for you, let me tell you that. You'll have to aggressively turn left if you want to, usually right when the light is turning red from yellow. Expect freeway traffic on all the major freeways (5, 10, 405) basically the whole day, but worst around 4-7, but honestly around where I live (Orange County) certain freeways start slowing at 2 pm until 8 pm, but this depends how close you are to a university (and there are so many in the area.

Basically I would say leave way way earlier than you think you need to if you're trying to get somewhere. It's nicer to have to chill in a Starbucks or wander around then sit on the 5 for 2 hours in the morning.

Like say your hotel is in LA but you're trying to go to Disneyland. Literally leave at 6 am to beat traffic. Every 5-10 minutes later in the morning and it gets exponentially worse. My dad lives here in OC and works up in LA and leaves at about 5:30-6am so he can cruise up in 45 min and have an hour to hang out instead of being in a car for 2 hours.

If you want any more specific advice, I can help you out. I go to LA a lot and even though people talk trash on public transit it is still an option.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sat 24 Oct 2015 21:47:44 No.1044978 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>1042663
I'm from SF and have been on LA freeways many times while visiting or on the way to San Diego. Traffic was bad, but it seemed pretty much on par with what I'm used to up north. I had a trip there a few years ago and met up with people who grew up in LA proper. Instead of sitting on the shitty freeways in traffic, we took all surface streets at rush hour across the metro. It was awesome and allowed me to see many neighborhoods I would've never seen otherwise. If you can plan ahead with a map, I'd strongly suggest taking the "scenic route" rather than the freeways.

Also if it's convenient, metrolink is pretty nice and fast, definitely worth taking imo

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 25 Oct 2015 09:34:42 No.1045096 Report Delete

Quoted By:

I've lived in the Bay Area for 10 years and have visited LA a few times, and LA traffic has been what I expected. Really bad. These anons should be able to give you advice on dealing with it.

It's not the point of this thread, but I could give you some Disneyland advice if you want. I have a lot of it.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 25 Oct 2015 09:49:05 No.1045103 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>1042663
I've lived in the Bay Area for 10 years and have visited LA a few times, and LA traffic has been what I expected. Really bad. These anons should be able to give you advice on dealing with it.

It's not the point of this thread, but I could give you some Disneyland advice if you want! I rarely drive to LA but I'm lucky enough to go to Disneyland pretty regularly.

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