Roads…where we’re going, we don’t need…roads (I wished)

As I said before, LA is a huge place and the car is king. And Queen and every other courtier too. You rarely see people walking, jogging yes and as my friend Amanda says “if I see someone running in their normal clothes, I wonder what they’ve robbed!” You just don’t get people using their two feet to get about as we do in the UK. So you are going to have to master the roads.
The ******* roads. I know I’ve mentioned a good blog on them (here – http://britsinla.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/learning-los-angeles.html) but if you are driving in LA, you will have to encounter (dun, dun, duuuuh!!!!) The Freeways and you had better beware my friend…beware.
Signs are often only on the outside lanes, fine if you happen to be near one, but not if you ‘re in the middle of an 8-lane behemoth and either side of you are two trucks/ Hummers/ buses. Sometimes the next exit signs are above the lanes, making it easy to see them, but also to see your 3-lane change to get across in time to make the exit, because you are NOT GIVEN A COUNTDOWN.
In the UK, we take it for granted that a motorway exit will be a sign, followed by a 3-2-1 and then the sign again saying ‘Exit’. In the US however, it will be a sign that displays the road name and usually the distance in miles, and then the exit. This is SO unhelpful – not everyone is familiar with how far a mile and it’s constituent parts are, so often an exit will spring up and cause you the inevitable 3-lane change. As well as this, Americans do not tend to indicate to change lanes, so if you do indicate, I have been reliably informed that they may tend to speed up, thus blocking your exit.
So let’s say you have seen your exit and you are across in time, the fun doesn’t stop there. Oh no. Since the exit is the name of the road, not where that exit leads. So you have to get learning the route that you want to take (unless you have a satnav) because you may pass one sign for your destination and then have to rely on street names for the rest of the way.
Okay, now you have recognised your exit, you have crossed over and are ready to exit the freeway. But hold on, what’s this car on your right hand side doing? They’re indicating to turn INTO YOU!?! Yes folks, freeway exits are often the on-ramps too, so you find yourself cutting across yet another lane of traffic in order to get off, whilst they are trying to get their way on!
I can see how so many accidents can occur (having nearly been in some!) and I can also see how people are distracted by being in the car where you don’t have to do anything apart from press the pedal for go and stop. I wonder, does having a gear shift make us more observant of other road users?