A good college friend of mine lives in LA and as an “essential” worker still goes to work. He says the traffic has been absolutely amazing. You not only can actually drive the speed limit, you can speed!
I live in Orange County, south of Los Angeles. I work and am out virtually every day, albeit driving mostly within the local area, though I did drive an hour each way on Easter Sunday. I would say the biggest difference is that there’s no rush hour traffic. In other words, no periods of clogged freeways and six or seven cars deep at red lights along major thoroughfares.
Drive through local streets and you see the same amount, or more, of people out walking or riding bikes. Kids are on bikes in twos or threes where they’d be in school normally. Strip mall parking is packed in front of grocery stores, pharmacies, and hardware stores. The spots by the rest of the centers are vacant.
And yes, the air quality is better.