They are racing on major roadways and in industrial zones, so this wouldn’t be practical. You can’t “traffic calm” routes needed by tractor trailers, or six lane roads. Plus, you’d have to do it essentially everywhere, because they’ll just keep going elsewhere.
That’s not to say LA doesn’t need to be more pedestrian friendly. Good god, does it ever. I lived there for 25 years without a car (it can be done in specific neighbourhoods) but I knew I was taking my life in my own hands every time I went out. I got hit three times, all in crosswalks while I had the light. Pedestrians are invisible in LA.
I think I’m alone in this belief, but I’m skeptical of “traffic calming” in general. It seems to all have come from the pop-science book Traffic (or at least everyones’ awareness of it did) but that book was the Atkins Diet of civil engineering. It might as well have been written by Malcolm Gladwell, for how much crap is in it. All the traffic calming measures I have seen all strike me as things that people will simply get used to. It slows every down for a little while, but I haven’t seen any studies showing they are effective long term.
I think the way to calm traffic is to make cities more livable on foot. Make people not want to drive. In cities where public transit is clean and fast, and neighbourhoods are walkable, people don’t bother owning cars.
