The madness of crowds: Autopia

“People are afraid to merge on freeways in Los Angeles,” or so the opening line of Bret Easton Ellis’sLess Than Zerowould have it. For myself, I’ve never seen the least evidence for this, any more than I have that happy families are all alike. Everywhere I’ve ever driven in LA, its inhabitants have cheerfully braided me into their steely weave until I too have merged with their all-consuming automotive abandon.

This time, arriving from Dallas, I was offered for $40 extra per day a retro-styled...