Glad I live in Northern San Diego county. Our bike lanes are usually seperated by a white line..But, the bike lane is usually at least 3 feet wide..That might even be enough for California drivers, so as to normally keep them out of the bike lane..
In adjacent Riverside county, it is common there are no bike lanes, but for the most part, (luckily) the lanes of the highways are quite wide...And you can often go out of the way and re-locate yourself to a road which has bike lanes..
Personally, a bike lane makes me feel far more secure...