How to Drive in Los Angeles

Driving in Los Angeles is a special skill, and to stay alive when you take to the streets, it’s best to school yourself on the way Angelenos approach the road. While some legal rules are followed, most are creatively bent or completely disregarded. Common road etiquette does not exist in Los Angeles. If you want to drive here and survive, you have to leave your preconceived notions about alternating merges and four-way stops at home. Here’s a look at how you can “blend in” with the local traffic while avoiding a fat ticket, dismemberment or death.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• Car
• Thomas Guide or GPS unit (both, ideally)
• Cell phone with a hand’s free device
• Car insurance

1. Purchase a Thomas Guide or a GPS unit, as there are enough streets that change names in Los Angeles to lose Sherlock Holmes. Often streets will stop and start up again in completely different places (take, for example, La Cienega). You need a map to tackle the city, particularly because knowing all the back routes will save your hours of time by giving you escape routes from traffic pile ups, water main breaks and accidents.
2. Ignore everything you see on the side of the road, lest you swerve and hit someone. Los Angeles freeways often have things like mattresses, sofas, burning vehicles and dead bodies strewn about the lanes. Do us all a favor and don’t gawk, just drive. Keep your eyes ahead and you won’t hit the other idiot who turned to look.
3. Drive defensively, because Angelenos drive offensively. And many don’t have any car insurance, which means if they hit you, it’s your problem. Hit and run is an art form in LA, so it’s best to try and avoid getting hit at all.
4. Pull into the intersection when making a left at a traffic light. Honestly, you shouldn’t do this anywhere else, but in LA, the rule is to fully pull into the intersection so that when you finally make the turn (after the light has probably turned red), you don’t block the cars coming from the other direction for too long. A warning on this—-LA has tons of little blue or white boxes located at intersections that will take a picture of you and your car if you happen to turn after the light has turned red or make some other illegal move. The picture will then be sent to your home, along with a nice ticket.
5. Know that merging is all muscle in Los Angeles. The law of alternate merge does not exist, regardless of whether it’s in the books or not. If you put on your blinker, people will speed up to avoid letting you into their lane. If you come to a merge, you have to force your way in. This is one case where you need to be aggressive or you will never get anywhere.
6. Be aware that Angelenos like to linger in the left lane even when they are going ten miles below the speed limit and, due to some baffling pride issues, will not move out of the way no matter what. Although passing on the right is technically illegal, it happens all the time on the freeways of LA because of situations like this. If you do pass on the right, be sure to check for cops first.
7. Kow that in LA, you can make a U-turn and a right on red at any light, unless it says otherwise.
8. Be aware that you cannot make a legal U-turn in the middle of a street considered a business district street. This means that any street with an office building on it (even if the building’s on the corner) is considered a business district street. They will ticket you, particularly in Santa Monica.
9. Do not drive drunk. Although this is often considered the accepted state of driving on weekend evenings, as there isn’t much effective mass transit in Los Angeles and nobody walks anywhere, it’s just plain stupid. Yes, other people will be driving drunk, but hopefully if you aren’t, you’ll have the reaction time to avoid them when they swerve into you.
10. Tune your radio to AM 980. This is the local news station, and they do a traffic report every ten minutes at the :01. Also, check the Sig Alert website for traffic and accident alerts.
11. Beware the meter maid. Keep a small fortune in change in your car for meters, and always be aware of your time. It’s almost scary how quickly the meter police will be at your car’s side as soon as that meter reads red.
12. Watch for pedestrians, particularly in Santa Monica (specifically on Main Street, Montana Avenue, and the Third Street Promenade), Venice, Pacific Palisades, Westwood, Beverly Hills (specifically in the Golden Triangle region around Rodeo Drive) and Hollywood. As soon as someone steps foot into the street at a crosswalk, you are technically supposed to stop for them. The exception to this is when there is a median in the street and you are on one side of the median and the pedestrian is on the other. Then you don’t have to stop until they get to your side of the median.
13. Stop at stop signs, especially in Santa Monica. There is something called the “California Roll,” which is essentially a pause at stop signs, but nothing near a full stop. If you happen to do this near a school, or in the field of vision of a police officer, this will get you a nice, fat ticket. Either be smart about it or just don’t do it.
14. Know that driving in Los Angeles is hands free as of July 2008. People under 18 are not allowed to drive and talk on the phone at all, period. This includes texting. However, you may use your phone without the hands free device to make emergency calls to the police, fire department, a hospital or other emergency services agency.
15. Don't smoke and drive if you have minors with you. It is illegal to smoke in cars when there are children under the age of 18 present in the vehicle.
16. Take more precaution than normal when it rains in LA. Even though a large portion of the population actually moved to LA from places where rain is a normal occurrence, it seems people forget how to drive in rain as soon as they arrive in LA. Keep your distance and allow for more stopping time, because no one else on the road will.

Tips & Warnings

• If you happen to drive a hybrid, keep in mind that when you go into electric mode, people on the street might not be able to hear you, as the car goes silent.
• These rules are for non-commercial vehicles. Commercial drivers have their own set of guidelines to follow.