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When you spend your life in Los Angeles, there are some downright weird things you just get used to that seem peculiar to anyone else from out of town. But those sorts of things tend to happen around or to you; what about the odd behaviors that you personally pick up?
So we turned to our social media followers to find out which habits people pick up here that are uniquely L.A. (After all, who’s a better authority on these than Angelenos?) As you’d expect, the majority of the responses were related to traffic and weather. There were also many mentions of alternative diets and not signaling, and while those are definitely pretty common occurrences here, they don’t strike us as uniquely L.A. The same goes for being able to watch sports games without staying up late or complaining about “cold” winter weather, which are more regional than L.A. things.
With all that said, here are 11 uniquely L.A. habits people pick up after living here—whether for a few years or an entire lifetime—as chosen by our followers.
1. Driving an hour-plus to eat at a new restaurant that’s just opened.
To be fair, that’s not much longer than the In-N-Out drive-through wait around dinnertime.
2. Straight-up making a left on red.
Pulling up into the middle of an intersection while you wait to turn left? Totally legal, and the proper way to make an unprotected left. Having to wait until the light has turned red—while still in the middle of the intersection—to make a left turn? A necessary and surprisingly still legal move. Stuck behind two cars and sitting behind the painted line but turning left anyway after the light has turned red? A special sort of lawlessness you’ll only ever encounter in L.A.
3. Wearing your gym clothes everywhere.
Since Lululemon is so expensive, it must satisfy the “business” part of “business casual,” right?
4. Showing up to a game late and leaving early to avoid traffic.
Wait, you mean Dodgers games don’t start in the 3rd inning and end in the 7th?
5. Putting “the” in front of freeway names.
You can thank L.A.’s early addiction to freeways for this one. Mid-century construction and naming standards transitioned freeways away from proper names (the Hollywood Freeway) and toward numbers (U.S. Route 101). Since L.A. already had freeways for decades at this point, the “the” stuck around—hence the 101.
6. Just assuming that the weather will be decent everywhere all the time.
Seriously, when was the last time you checked the forecast before making plans?
7. Not bringing a jacket… or an umbrella…
See above about the forecast.
8. Listening to three audiobooks a week in the car.
Angelenos on average spend the equivalent of four full days sitting in traffic each year. Might as well fill all of that time with a good book.
9. Using Waze to navigate somewhere that you already know how to get to.
You know the one time you don’t is when you’ll hit atrocious traffic.
10. Not going somewhere unless there’s parking.
No spots within two blocks? Well, you as might as well just drive back home and bluster about how you’ll never drive there again.
11. Calling a walk a hike if it includes any sort of incline.
Let us just preface this by saying how fortunate we feel that we live somewhere with dozens upon dozens of beautiful, bona fide hikes a short distance away. But let’s also admit that there’s nothing particularly wild nor strenuous about, say, the paved pathway around the Hollywood Reservoir.
Thanks to Amanda, Anita, Annee, Anthony, Ashley, Bill, Catherine, Floyd, Grace, Ian, Jack, Jen, Jenny, Jesse, Judith, Kelly, Knute, Lori, Mandm, Maribeth, Marlene, Michele, Michele, NM, Pearl, Peter, Petey, Raymond, Rubí, Sabrina, Samantha, Shay, Silvia, Skippy, Stergios, Taehyun, Tavia, Theresa, Tracey and Vickie for the suggestions.