I live near the epicenter of shitty driving, Glendale. I have a few theories about what's going on. First of all, the cops aren't doing sh!t. You can run a red light right in front of them, and they won't react. Second, there's a whole subculture of little dipshits who think they're race car drivers because they bought a fast car on credit and they've seen all the Fast and Furious movies. The combination of mindless aggression, arrogance and stunning incompetence is really something, plus some of these "street racer" fuckheads are cops, so there's maybe a feeling of impunity there. Then there's the fact that everyone hates each other and thinks they're more important than anyone else, plus everyone knows there are no consequences for sh!t driving anymore.
So you've got hordes of dipshits playing with their phones sharing the same roads with wannabe race drivers and entitled fuckheads who think wherever they're going is more important than anyone else's safety, and you've got the carnival of bullshit that I deal with every day. Add to that the legions of insane people pushing shopping carts of flaming garbage down the street, sometimes while naked, and, well, it's really something.