I'm NOT in LA but ALL California does this (at least SoCal):
A car is broken down on the freeway pulled over off the street, out of the way. The freeway, going BOTH ways (even if it's a divided freeway with a cement divider)comes to a halt. I swear to God. We call them looky-loos.
You literally can crawl for an hour or more than suddenly, you pass the car to side of the road, and traffic flows again. That is so annoying.
Oh, and here in CA, pedestrians/bicyclist have all kinds of rights. Like X said, don't get me started.
TIS