Myth No 2:

Nobody Walks (or rides) in LA

Time, traffic and the evolving zeitgeist of Green are gradually conspiring to wean Angelenos from their cars. Check out Hollywood or downtown any time of the day or night, and you'll find pedestrians. Not just tourists, but actual locals moving from point A to point Z on foot or streaming out of subway stations.

New organizations dedicated to the car-free exploration of Los Angeles are springing up every day. Six Taste offers food walking tours of Little Tokyo, Thai Town, downtown and Hollywood. If your palate prefers Pasadena, Melting Pot Tours will take you there on foot.

While you're in Pasadena, take a self guided bicycle tour of the city's architectural landmarks. The Sierra Club offers night hikes in Griffith Park; listening to the coyotes yip as you take in the sprawling lightscape of LA is an unmatchable experience.

"Secret Stairs", a new guidebook by novelist and entertainment reporter Charles Fleming leads you to 200 outdoor staircases tucked away in LA's hills and dales, perfect for day hikes and a time capsule trip back to pre-automobile Los Angeles.

The LA Conservancy offers a variety of Los Angeles walking tours, emphasizing the city's Art Deco heritage and its movie palaces.

There is a dedicated culture of Metro riders, bicycle fanatics, scooter jockeys and hard-core pedestrians who blog about all things un-automobile.

On selected Sundays, the city closes stretchs of LA to cars, offering up a traffic-free, runway-size stage for gridlock weary Angelenos. The bi-annual CicLAvias attract over 100,000, proof that not only do we walk in LA, we bike, skateboard, roller blade and we'll drop into impromptu yoga poses if given enough space.

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