To the people quick to jump on the “native Angeleno” bandwagan, this applies to natives and transplants alike. Stop being so sensitive. The road rage thing is true–one of my friends carries a baseball bat in the back seat for protection after she was almost attacked.

I’ve lived in three cities. Originally, I’m from Baltimore (of course they have crazy drivers there as well–the DC commute crowd are the worst), but lived in Philly and NYC. When I lived in NYC, I thought they were bad but after moving to L.A., L.A. takes the title (I’m sure someone will give me the “native Angeleno” speech for stating this). I say this because as a pedestrian, I’ve never had a fear for my life until I came out here.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve almost gotten hit from an impatient driver or someone just not paying attention. I’m not one of those entitled pedestrians..i.e. when I see someone that wants to turn, I usually hurry up instead of walking like a snail as I’ve seen people do.

This has happened to me a number of times this week. The walk sign gives me the go ahead and I always look before I cross. Just the other day while I’m already CROSSING–I’m halfway across the street and this turning idiot who must have appeared in my blind side (I didn’t see him when I started crossing) almost hits me. The jerk had the nerve to honk at me.

Also whenever I walk in front of garage exits of apartment buildings I’m particularly cautious because drivers usually just shoot out without stopping first. I’ve seen people almost get hit, including myelf. Usually, I’ve noticed that the driver is looking in the direction that they want to go instead of looking at their surroundings.

My friend told me that she and possibly many others, I believe, only look for cars. Sometimes she forgets about pedestrians. I told her that’s not a smart move. As the driver, YOU need to be aware of what’s going on around you. Granted, you’ll have some careless pedestrians as well. As a driver myself, I look out for not only cars, but people also.

I now understand why people hardly walk in this town. It’s because they value their legs and life like I do.

I drove a yellow cab in NYC for several years, learned a lot about driving, and got very good at being able to tell what another driver was about to do (which is very useful here). Between then and moving to CA there were quite a number of years with hardly any driving. So when I ended up here, it was pretty stressful at first. I mean, it was just like getting back on a bike, but everyone here was doing things sooo differently (or indifferently) than back east.

I could go on and on with the war stories, but you get it.

Sometimes I have to consciously decide nothing I experience on a CA road will bother me that day and I’ll just let everyone do their thing because *clearly* they have much more important things to do than I. I manage score an 8 on the 1-10 peace of mind meter when I do that.

By away, I was born in Hong Kong SAR, China… Paul, do you want to take in driving test over there??? ‘Cause, it is really, really, really hard to pass the driving test over there… Why don’t you fly yourself over there and pass the driving test there first, and then you can talk about other people driving skills!!!