My morning commute in LA is a right angle. I head up Fair Oaks Avenue from Mission Street on the 260 or the 762 bus and get off at the intersection between Fair Oaks and Colorado Avenue. When the stores are open, the intersection is jammed with pedestrians carting around their shopping bags, teenagers walking with their friends, freelancers in their mid-20s headed to the nearby Intelligentsia Coffee to work, all the normal street traffic of Old Town Pasadena. But at 9:15 a.m. on a Monday morning, the stores and coffee shops are quiet, just about to open for the day. After waiting for a few minutes, I catch the 780 bus headed west and at about a month in, I could probably time the stops in my sleep: Orange Grove, Figueroa, Eagle Rock, Sierra Villa, Verdugo, and finally Glendale and Brand, the two stops equidistant from my office.
I repeat my morning commute spiel more than you’d think, to coworkers, to friends, to family, to interrogative Uber drivers, everyone wants to hear my (not so) horror stories about LA’s public transportation. For a city where many of it’s inhabitants profess to never having used the bus system, it’s mighty interesting in the people who do. The idea of someone not knowing how to drive went from being slightly weird in Philadelphia, to the norm in New York, to being downright unheard of in Los Angeles. As impossible as it seems to a lot of people, I actually like public transportation.
LA's public transport is actually pretty good, via Transitmap.net
To be honest, I’m not sure where my affinity for public transportation started, or even where it came from. Anyone who lives in Philadelphia knows that the buses, subway, and regional rail commuter trains run by SEPTA are more than a little infuriating and less than amazing when it comes to actually getting you where you need to go. But those SEPTA trains were also what gave me my first bit of real freedom at 11 years old, when I was allowed to take them by myself to go meet up with my mom in downtown Philly.
It also helps that for some reason, I’m good at public transport. Give me a subway map and five minutes, I can get you where you need to go. Any city, any time. I remember going on a trip to Boston with my friend for a camp reunion, back when both of us were far too young to be in a strange city by ourselves, and feeling immensely proud that I was able to navigate us around.
When I visited London, my parents humored me and let me drag them around the city via the Tube. They even took me to the London Transit Museum where I bought wrapping paper that was a map of the underground, which I proudly hung in my dorm room during my freshman year of college (a foolproof way to make your roommate think you're really cool).
So cool and normal! Via ThatsMaths.com
Some people, like many LA inhabitants, only see a dirty, crowded, large vehicle when they watch a bus go by, but I think it’s important to remember it’s more than that to so many people. People who are not fortunate enough to have the money for a car and gas money, those who cannot drive for any multitude of reasons, elderly people, young people. To many, public transportation means freedom, and not just in the meet-your-mom-downtown sense, in the serious get-to-work-to-make-a-living-and-feed-your-family sense as well. When people here tell me that no one in LA takes the bus, often my first thought is: That’s kind of a privileged way to look at it.
In truth, I’m perfectly content in my license-less state. It’s on my list of things to accomplish one day, like watching the entire series of "The West Wing" or finally learning how to blow dry my hair properly. It’ll happen someday when I have enough time. For now, just give me a subway map — or an app— I’ll be perfectly fine.
