Driving in LA

[burne99]

Hi,

Travelling from Australia and wondering just how bad the driving is? I drove
In Florida on the i4 with no problems but nervous about LA. Want to drive from disney to universal and wb studios, maybe some outlets and places like that.

Thanks

 

[McNs]

LA is fine, I have always found the drivers to be courteous. You need a GPS or smart phone with data. There is LOTS of traffic during rush hour (more like rush 3 hours) and it sometimes seems to go in every direction. Always plenty of car parking available, you will need to pay in some places but even then it is pretty cheap.

 

[burne99]

I've got a GPS and the inclination to get up early to avoid traffic

ThanKs for replying!

 

[Carstairs38]

People talk about our crazy drivers, but I don't find them that worse than anywhere else. Sounds to me like you'll be fine.

 

[elphaba91]

Fellow Aussie here! We only drove the one day in LA - from Santa Monica to Disneyland via the Citadel Outlets. We survived, but it was a bit scary mainly because a) it's on the wrong side of the road; b) we didn't know where we were going (the iPhone had to re calibrate the route a few times!); and c) the freeways are pretty insane. I would suggest that you make sure you really take the time to look at where you're going and the route you plan on taking. It could also be handy if you calculate the distances between turn offs, etc. to try cut down on the mental arithmetic when your GPS tells you in miles rather than kilometres! Following the route along Google street view was very helpful too!

Most important: when travelling on the freeways, make sure you stay in the middle lane. Rather than making a very deliberate choice to turn off the freeway as you would here, the freeway would often just suddenly split in two, with one or two lanes going in a totally different direction. A few times we were on the correct road when suddenly our lane veered off to the right and became a different road entirely!

It definitely is doable, but my mum (who was the driver) said that that was the scariest ride she went on during the trip...California Screamin' was a kiddie ride in comparison!

 

[burne99]

That's awesome.

Thanks for that! I have my own us gps, programmed
In miles so it matches the signs. It's the same brand I
Use here, so I am
Use to it, but backtracking might be necessary

Thank you for the support!

 

[theluckyrabbit]

We always tell our int'l. friends to remember to breathe (!) when they start driving in L.A. It's OK to miss an exit. You can always get off at the next exit and backtrack. We also remind them that it is OK to allow enough buffer time to stop at a Starbucks if things start getting overwhelming. You'll do just fine!