It is an impossibility to drive any of the freeways in SoCal without passing through multiple school zones. This is why it is recommended to transport unloaded handguns in a locked container while travelling in a vehicle through populated areas. If you get pulled over in a school zone or if the cop saw you pass through one, and your gun is not locked up, you could be arrested for violating PC 626.9. It is too much of a legal minefield to risk getting caught in one.
We have already had one member here convicted of carrying in a school zone even though he was on private property and did not know he was in a school zone at the time, both of which are listed exemptions under the law. The judge and prosecutor would not allow the exemptions to be argued in court, thus the jury never knew about them, and he was convicted. He received a suspended sentence and can't own guns for the next 10 years.
Technically speaking, if you are completely unfamiliar with the area, you cannot be in violation of the law since you did not know nor reasonably could have known you were in a school zone, which is the requirement that must be met to be charged with the crime. But when you have agents of the state conspiring to obfuscate and rewrite the law in order to convict you, there is no way you can win. The state of California does not want its citizens carrying guns and they will make an example of you if they have the opportunity.
If this is a risk you are willing to accept, then by all means do what you will. If it's not, then keep the gun locked up while driving through populated areas.
