Yes. Downtown Los Angeles is a cesspool. Go watch any Gangster Rap video and all the crap you see in there is exactly what you will see in downtown L.A. The roads are absolutely crap with huge potholes, totally uneven pavement and slabs of crappy cement, and lots and lots of traffic and signals. One minute you're in a business district the next you're in gangbang territory. You absolutely NEED a mountainbike to survive there. I rode my motorcycle there and I hit a pothole so big, it dented my front rim! Don't ride in L.A. Go ride in the foothills of L.A. or the coastline. Long Beach is near enough and is a good place to ride.