Los Angeles public transit is quite the ride. Occasionally, I take it from downtown to my job in Venice on Fridays. I would complain more but it takes about the same amount of time as actually driving during rush hour and is much cheaper than paying $5 per gallon for gas. It also provides steady entertainment.
Last week, I was standing near the rear exit of a bus on the Metro 733 route that runs along Venice Boulevard. A man dressed in a suit chundered on the floor for a good 30 seconds. With every stop and go, it slid closer and closer to my feet until we were all asked to evacuate the bus and get on the next one.
A week before that, a homeless man sitting across from me peed himself while drinking from a flask concealed in a brown paper bag and simultaneously attesting his sobriety. The aroma was splendid.
Needless to say, I’m more than excited for the highly anticipated Expo Line to debut on April 28th. The first phase, running from downtown LA to Culver City, has finally been approved to open to the public, after much more time and money than anticipated. It will be the first line to connect downtown and the Westside in over 50 years, and it’s about time.
Los Angeles and its lack of cohesiveness has always been a point of criticism. A point that, as an Angelino immigrant from the East Coast, I couldn’t agree with more. It’s the only major city I’ve been to that lacks any easy and tangible way to get from point A to point B. And I think this disconnect is the source of its fragmented feeling. After living here for 3 years, I still don’t understand its boundaries. Is Beverly Hills in Los Angeles? Is Hollywood in Los Angeles? I’ve asked people who are from those areas, and they don’t even know. It doesn’t matter how many attractions there are in the general area because if you can’t easily get from one to the other, you can’t appreciate their existence.
Maybe the new Expo Line will ignite a sense of unity among the numerous and diverse neighborhoods that fall under the larger umbrella of “Los Angeles,” mixing the ‘elite’ and the ‘street.’ I think the line will be very successful in attracting all kinds of riders, from the people who already frequent public transit, to business men and women looking for a shorter commute, to the many 20-somethings who want to avoid car payments and are advocates of green living.
I’m actually almost positive the line will be a success. It will surely be used by the lower class that already depends on busses. And I think it will attract the middle class and public transit virgins, because for some reason, public transportation attached to a rail of any sort is more appealing than when on an ordinary road. On the ranks of public transportation, speed lines and subways are usually top-tier, with busses on the bottom as least desirable. Taking the subway is like, totally cool and indie, and the bus is like, gross. Ask any girl from LA who has visited a friend In New York City for a weekend.
And for my last personal anecdote, my favorite transit experience: several weeks ago, a man sitting 2 seats away from kept humming Britney Spears songs and laughing uncontrollably. He dropped something under his seat and tried to pick up the object for a good 2 or 3 minutes. I realized it took him so long because he actually didn’t have either of his hands. I then realized the object he so fervently tried to pick up was a switchblade. Awesome.
Okay, so the Expo Line [thankfully] won’t prevent situations like that or those mentioned earlier. But it will provide a long overdue connection between the geographically close but culturally distant regions, allowing Los Angeles to function more like, well, a city.
I've (shamefully) admit that being born and raised in California I have only used Public Transportation in Europe and in Portland, OR. However, based on my limited experiences I found this post extremely true and entertaining. The last anecdote about the man humming Britney is a personal favorite. However, in all seriousness I'm actually very excited for the Expo Line and think it will have a very positive impact on allowing LA to function like a city. Great Post!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that in Los Angeles we need more public transportation, like thewomaninthemiddle i am ashamed to say that I finally rode public transportation for the first time last week and I work as an Intern at the Metro Headquarters recruiting Bus Operators. But I have yet to ride on a bus and ride a train until last week. I would like to expand on the discussion and say that what we need more of in Los Angeles is underground rail and subways that can transport people faster than on the surface trains as they have to follow the speed limits and traffic laws of the road. And in LA we have way to many cars so the rail system in LA is generally very slow. Whereas if we have subways the trains can run faster and transport more people at the same time. That is what I think can help alleviate some of the traffic problems in LA.
ReplyDeleteAwesome post. I can't even imagine LA with a functional public transport system that people other than weird crackheads take or the occasional student. California in general just sucks that way, BART in the Bay area is probably the only normal system we have. I don't understand why we have never built a normal subway system that everyone takes like in all other big American cities. At least we are entertained by the buses? Every time I take the 550 bus to W. Hollywood I definitely feel like I'm going to get raped or murdered...or at least hit on in very interesting ways...one time some guy who literally had a telephone attached to his Blackberry kept saying to me, "Ey baby gurl you wanna go to a nice Italian spot with me? We'll get some good wine and some weed and I'll introduce you to some rappers." I just kept repeating, "No thank you, sir." Just to create a more vivid picture of this guy, he had "pussy" written on his hat with a sharpie and pot leaves drawn all over his shoes that said "Fuck the police."
ReplyDeleteNot really my type, lo siento.
Also being from the East Coast, I can sympathize with the frustration of the lack of prevalent and effective public transportation in Los Angeles. It's really a terrible situation. The buses are not only disgusting and filled with handfuls of weirdo, but they are terribly slow with complicated routes. They put way too much emphasis on the bus system for a city with a population as vast as Los Angeles. I'm from Washington D.C. where we have one of the best Metro Train Transit Systems in the country which efficiently winds through the district and extends deep into the suburbs of Maryland and Virginia. It connects major transit hubs such as bus junctions and airports. LA needs to follow its lead keeping the train systems clean, organized, and efficient. Unfortunately, the D.C. area is still ranked 2nd in the nation for worst traffic so I don't think that an improved train transit system will necessarily have a huge impact on traffic. LA glam still requires that you bring out the Beamer every now and then.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first moved to Los Angeles I was confused by their lack of public transportation. I'm from Kentucky and there I used public transportation quite frequently. It was something I could do if I had to. Here in Los Angeles, I've had a few experiences like you've had and mentioned in your post. I think Los Angeles needs to plan for the future now and invest in better public transit. The Expo line is a move in the right direction, but I think there needs to be more projects like it. There are way too many people trying to travel around Los Angeles with cars!
ReplyDeleteHaha. First off, good post, it made me chuckle.
ReplyDeleteI think that the Expo line sounds good and all, but I'm not sure if it is really going to make things much easier. I don't think LA is really ever going to add sufficient public transportation, and not because we won't have the money or the technology, but because it's a car culture. It's something that makes LA unique. No other place in the country or even the world has a car culture like we o here, and it all came about because of the unique city we live in. It's the second largest city in our country population wise, and it's one of the largest cities in the world in terms of its geographical size. Those two things combined make for a perfect public transit disaster. I, like Lena, haven't used public transportation here except for a metrolink train to get home a few times. While I lived in Europe, though, I obviously didn't have a car, and I had to use public transit. I'm not sure which I like better though because in my car, I'm the king who thinks he can sing. On public transit, though it's cheaper and better for the environment, I feel like I'm not supposed to speak or look someone else in the eye.
The Expo Line is a start, but Los Angeles remains too large an area to feature a reliable, safe, and aesthetically pleasing system of public transit. Cities like New York and Chicago have a lot less ground to cover, while LA is very spread out. It's not likely to get any better any time soon.
ReplyDeleteIt really is quite a show being present in such situations. I admit, I am not one who takes public transportation here in California, but the 2 times I have it as rather been an interesting one. I am actually rather happy about the fact that we have the Expo Line to cover a greater range within Los Angeles. I think that it can be beneficial to many people who are traveling between but I do agree with Jeremy that we are in fact living in a city where people can't possibly live without their cars with that said I think it's going to take quite a long time to solve this issue with traffic and better the public transportation experience.
ReplyDeleteI'm one of the few people who grew up in Los Angeles and staunchly supports public transit. Even though I tend to get frustrated when I take the bus (I don't understand why it is always late and often doesn't show up at all), I think that the Los Angeles rail system is actually pretty decent. I took the Expo Line on opening day this past weekend, and there were a lot of people on the train. I think that when the city can finally finish implementing its transit plan, this city should become a much more transit-friendly place. What concerns me is that Angelinos have a tendency to love their car too much, but that's a story for another day.
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