Is there anything that feels more quintessential to the California Experience than getting in a droptop convertible and cruising down the coastal highway? You have the tunes cranked up, the wind licks at your hair and a wide grin creeps across your face as you drop your sunglasses down and hit the accelerator, rocketing you down the highway, your destination not nearly as important as the journey.
The road is exceptionally important to Californians, the road and the vehicles they use to traverse it. There are 412,580 jobs within the state's auto industry, resulting in 30,958,596 registered vehicles on the road with an average of 13,633 miles driven annually per driver. And it turns out that Californians spend the rough equivalent of a small country's GDP when it comes to the amount of money spent on new cars for sale. $63.51 billion, to be a bit more precise. That should keep the more than 10,000 dealerships in the state busy.
California was also one of the progenitors of modern automobile safety standards and regulations. The California Department of Motor Vehicles was founded in 1905 and began enacting and enforcing laws that would eventually become known as the standard rules of the road. Of course, not every road-related law in California makes sense. For instance, did you know it's illegal to jump from a car going 65 mph in Glendale? Or that in Hermosa Beach it's against the law to spill your margarita in the street? It's also a misdemeanor crime to shoot at any kind of an animal from a moving vehicle...except for whales.
Just remember that when you're driving on the country's second longest interstate, I-80, which covers 2,907 miles from San Francisco to New York.