Sometimes when I'm on the bus and the minutes are ticking ever more quickly toward 9 a.m., I wonder if there's a faster way to get to work using mass transit than my current route of the Blue Line and 16 bus. I chose the route because of it's simplicity (hey, just one transfer!). The rail portion isn't so bad but the mere seven-mile bus ride that takes 35 minutes slows things down. I also wouldn't mind incorporating more walking since that's one of the benefits to using public transportation, but with 30 miles to go morning and evening, that has the potential to really slow things down.
One alternative route is taking the 720, the Rapid bus that runs along Wilshire. On a bit of a lark, I decided to try it yesterday after work. I left the office and didn't feel a bit of remorse as I headed off to Wilshire and La Brea, even when two 16 buses passed me. I was enjoying my .8-mile walk through the neighborhood just south of my office.
Google maps, with it's awesome new feature of showing walking routes, said it would take me 17 minutes. I got to the Rapid stop in 15 -- take that Google maps! There were about a dozen people waiting in the hot sun. A fancy schmancy electronic sign told me a bus was coming in three minutes. The bus came but then, in classic bus horror-story fashion, it passed right on by. I looked at the sign again and saw I had five more minutes to kill until the next bus. It was about this time that my walking high wore off. I stared across the street at a building with a pilates studio, thinking I could be there instead of wasting time on this street corner, one more missed bus away from becoming one of those sweaty bus people.
The next bus stopped and we all piled on. Some people jumped on through the rear doors. I used the front door since it was my first time on a Rapid bus and didn't know if that was against the rules.
That worked out because I had the best view on the bus. I stood next to the bus driver and got to watch the street ahead through the giant windshield. I felt like a passenger in a car since we barely made stops (just one at Crenshaw). It was the closest feeling to driving I've had on a bus, even with standing, my foot touching someone else's foot and my back lightly caressing the person behind me (but he was cute so that was OK).
I got off at Western and Wilshire, bolted for the Red Line station and waited just a few minutes before the train pulled away. Eight minutes later I was back on familiar ground, the downtown 7th Street Metro Station. I got off the train and looked at my watch. I had missed the 6:46 p.m. Blue Line train by a minute. One damn minute! If only that first 720 had stopped.
I got back to Long Beach at 7:33, pretty much the same arrival time as my old route. So in theory this walk-bus-train-train route would be faster if I could catch the 720 right away and didn't have to wait much for the trains, but lets get real folks.
I might take this route again on a day I feel like walking. Maybe I'll take the 720 all the way downtown. That's one less transfer. Ooh, maybe that's my "miracle" route. I can keep dreaming, can't I?
Boarding non-Orange line buses on the back (for Metro) is never officially acceptable, but the bus driver usually doesn't say anything (in my experience) as long as you have a pass, especially when it's really crowded.
ReplyDeleteIf you don't have a pass that you flash when you get on, forget about it.