[kuujo]

I totally agree. I recently moved to LA for a job. A couple of months before moving I had bought a nice road bike. Even though I live 2.5 miles from work now, that road bike still sits in my closet every day. I would love to ride it to work, but LA doesn't even have enough lanes to support both driving and parking, let alone biking. The roads are full of traffic and impatient drivers and I value my life too much to risk riding my bike on the couple feet of shoulder that might exist on those roads.

[ptaipale]

I sympathize and hope you could find out how to cycle to work; as a side note, however, a "nice road bike" is not very good for commuting 2.5 miles to work.

1) road bikes are not good for taking you and a laptop a short distance to work; they are optimized for doing long journeys on free roads, not city traffic. What you want is a bike where you sit upright and which enables you to look around more conveniently, a bike with no clip pedals which enables you to stop at traffic lights at ease, and a bike with a rack which enables you to put your bag on it, etc.

2) a nice bike will be stolen in no time unless you keep it in closet (even here, and my country/city has actually very little crime).

That said, I understand your problem if roads are too scary. Where I live I have a dedicated bike/pedestrian lane 98 % of my work commute (10 km) and I mostly use a cyclocross bike which is almost like a road bike (slightly more agile, because there are many turns and crossings on the way, but I do use clip pedals).

Too often people buy "fashionable" bikes for commute (a carbon-fibre road bike, a BMX or downhill bike, or a fat bike) when the best one would be a cheap, general-purpose hybrid bike that rolls relatively easily but can take you across stone slabs or grit without puncture, and has a relatively upright sitting position with efficient access to pedals.

[jessaustin]

Congratulations on a very manageable LA commute! Having biked many miles for commuting and for pleasure in LA when I lived there, I suspect this is a discomfort you can get over rather than a strictly rational risk assessment. Maybe you could try riding the route at times other than rush hour, like over the weekend, just to get familiar with the route and the basic mechanics of traveling it? Perhaps there is a longer route, over less obvious residential streets, that will be more comfortable? If there is one section that really concerns you, just walk your bike on the sidewalk for that part. There are a number of riding clubs and meetups, with varying degrees of formality and expectations; you might find riding in LA traffic less intimidating with a group. You will find that driving lanes are biking lanes. Swerving from shoulder to shoulder is a mistake you don't have to make.

And I echo sibling's suggestion to get a more practical bike. When you get "off the map" [away from routes that cars are forced to travel] you might find all sorts of sketchy but bike-friendly shortcuts, through parks, parking lots, industrial areas, etc. Skinny road bike tires don't like these routes, but LA streets are full of all the same hazards.

[CalRobert]

What part of the city? I used to work in Santa Monica and biking there, while not perfect, wasn't too terrible. There are plenty of tech jobs in SM, or Venice for that matter.

I agree that LA on the whole is a decrepit hellhole for cyclists, though.