The older parts of the city at least, at “surface level streets” level, are typical American grid layouts, which results in plenty of intersections. Back east all such intersections would have right of way defined by stop signs. California, though, is different. Minor intersections are “uncontrolled intersections”, and like the typical continental European city, which has the same system, they operate with “give way to the right”

California is also famous for having motorists who actually observe pedestrians’ right of way. The pavement to pavement crossing at an uncontrolled intersection would, I am pretty sure, count as an “unmarked pedestrian crossing”, like the crossing across the entrance to a side street, where motorists must stop, and do, for pedestrians.

All this is not as random, I grant, as you portray a “naked street”. However, I would bet that the naked streets aren’t truly random either. I imagine cars would always pass each other on the “proper” side, for example.

I remember traces of nakedness in Britain, too, when the Ministry of Transport insisted that there were no right-of-way rules at roundabouts, and pedestrians had right of way crossing the streets anywhere, not just at pedestrian crossings.

Some of Amreican civilized behaviour is helped not by the absence of rules, but rather their presence. Although the USA doesn’t have a default 20 mph urban speed limit, it doesn’t have a 30 mph limit either. The limit is halfway in between, at 25 mph. Near schools, when the yellow lights are flashing, the limit is 15 mph, and when a school bus is flashing its red lights the limit is zero.

Jeremy Parker