Affordable Los Angeles Car Rental for Self-Drive Adventures [2023 Guide]

I traveled to Vegas for a business trip and had a layover in Los Angeles, so I decided to extend my stay by a few days to explore the city. While LA is one of the few cities with relatively convenient public transportation—allowing you to navigate areas like Westwood, Santa Monica, Downtown, Hollywood, Venice, and even Malibu Beach by bus—this time, due to the short duration and heavy workload, I opted to rent a car.

📌 Before renting a car, it’s crucial to understand whether driving in the US is easy or not, so you can confidently decide if you should drive yourself. The answer is —— [It’s easy, very easy]. This is thanks to the clear rules around right-of-way, meaning that when you’re going straight, you have the highest priority.

Driving in Los Angeles feels almost effortless, as there are hardly any bicycles or motorcycles on the road, few pedestrians, and almost no jaywalkers. Essentially, you only need to focus on your lane, and there are far fewer cars compared to China.

📌 What else do you need to be aware of?
– Always give way to emergency vehicles such as fire trucks (which are quite common), police cars with sirens, and ambulances. I’ve placed this at the top because it’s what concerns me the most. As soon as the siren of a fire truck sounds—even if it’s several blocks away—I start to feel nervous, and if I can’t see the fire truck, I get even more anxious.

The general rule is to stop and give way. If the emergency vehicle is in your lane or the opposite lane, you need to make space, clear the middle lane, stop, and pull over to allow it to pass. Even if the emergency vehicle is in the opposite lane, you should stop and give way in case it needs to use your lane.

At intersections, if you can’t determine the direction of the emergency vehicle, you should pull over and stop to give way.
– Another important point is about school buses. When the small red sign on the school bus is up, it means the bus has stopped by the roadside, and students are getting on or off.

Cars traveling in both directions must stop and wait.
– For right turns, just watch out for “no turn on red” signs. Otherwise, the rules are similar to those in China. However, be mindful of the right-of-way; cars in the straight-ahead lane will move quickly and won’t yield, so when turning right at a red light, be sure to check for oncoming traffic from behind.

– For left turns, there are two types: a dedicated left-turn green light or a shared green light with straight-ahead traffic. You only need to pay attention when the green light is shared. In this case, you must wait for the straight-ahead traffic to clear, or if the following straight-ahead vehicles are far enough away, then you can turn left.

Therefore, at some intersections with heavy straight-ahead traffic, left turns can only be made during the yellow light interval, allowing only a couple of cars to proceed.