Originally Posted by jackal

This is the sentiment I see expressed all the time. Everyone who has never driven in L.A. and finally does comes back surprised how natural and easy it is.

I'm actually always surprised that people even have the idea that driving is bad in Los Angeles. Maybe it's because L.A. has a bad reputation for traffic, but that's really only on certain freeways at rush hour, and even then, it's not hard--just slow.

It makes sense that driving in L.A. is smooth. EVERYONE drives there and drives all the time, so they're actually pretty good with the rules of the road (at least compared to the rest of the U.S./Canada). Yes, it's true, L.A. drivers are a little on the aggressive side, but not in the jerky, annoying, road-rage-causing way: rather, it's in the way that most efficiently utilizes space and keeps traffic flowing smoothly. You'll see people change lanes and squeeze into a spot in traffic if there's not so much as one car length plus six inches, but they do it smoothly, and everyone expects it, so it's actually MUCH easier than it sounds. (It's kind of like driving in New York: the thought of people constantly weaving around with inches to spare to get around parked cars, garbage trucks, buses, disappearing lanes, etc. sounds horrific, but when you actually try it, it's not that difficult, since everyone's moving so slowly and gives way to people merging.)

As for surface street driving, well--L.A.'s freeway culture has made it so everyone traveling even a moderate distance (which most people are) is likely to get on the freeway (even if it's heavily trafficked!), which means that surface streets are actually usually pretty clear of traffic, since only the locals use them! And as silverthief2 said, disappearing lanes and one-way streets are exceedingly rare.

I'll take driving in L.A. over any other major or even mid-sized city in the U.S.