Someone mentioned Highway 33, out the back of Ojai.
OMG - that brings back memories from the ealy 1980's!!!
Smooth, fast, few cars, nice views - no LE. I remember another road from there. . . Um, Frazier Park Road! Eventually you end up on I5.
I can't comment on 17 specifically, since it's been a long time since I have been on it.
But there are a lot of other great roads. I think when you are new, it pays to ride a lot of different kinds of roads so you can get used to unexpected things. Also, just riding around town helps as well. As does freeway.
I agree with the person who said that being over cautious was not good. I think it's OK to be cautious, and I think caution is ALWAYS good. But if you hesitate, you can have problems. So your riding needs to be confident, if that makes sense.
It's not even about bike handling - it's more like a mental thing where you are able to judge risk. A lot of times, you will be put in a position where you have two or more choices, each of them has risk. You have to learn how to quickly assess which choice carries the least risk to you - OR to another person!!!
An example is you are being tailgated as you proceed down a residential street at the speed limit. You see a ball roll in front of your path from right to left. That's a signal that a child may run into the street from the right. There's a car coming the other way as well.
Do you:
1) Brake hard and possibly get rear ended?
2) Veer into the other lane, but possibly get side swiped?
3) Cover brakes and brake moderately, taking the chance that you will have a second obstacle (a child) to avoid?
4) Pull hard to right and let car pass you (with them possibly hitting an innocent child)?
There's actually no clear answer (except that 4 is definitely immoral), since every situation is different. A lot depends on what position in the lane the other car is (is there room for you to veer). A lot also depends on how closely you are being tailgated, and whether you have a sense of the coherence of the driver behind you. A lot might also depend on whether you can see the child in the yard, or whether there are parked cars that a child could be behind. Whether it's day or night. Whether the road is wet. There's probably 20 other factors too.
Now imagine mentally processing all of this in about 1/10th of a second. Whatever decision you make, you are committed to it.
That's the confidence thing.