Blue line blues

This Column One story in the Los Angeles Times, Blue Line cuts across L.A. County's invisible boundaries, takes a spectator's view of the Blue Line. As the reporter says, "Five bucks gets you a day pass to one of the most unpredictable shows in town." Wow, how offensive to the people who take the train every day. The reporter describes confrontations, pirated DVDs, people hawking water and gamblers -- "poverty porn" as one commenter aptly called it. It's an unfortunate example of reporting that skims the surface instead of immersing itself in the community it's allegedly covering. I think it's too bad because the paper missed an opportunity to respectfully show its readers, most of whom are probably unfamiliar with the light rail system and have never taken a train in LA, how important it is to many of the people who ride it.

That's what struck me when I first started taking the Blue Line a few years ago to save on gas. I sadly hardly ever take public transportation now since it's faster to drive, but I had never realized how heavily used the rail line, which connects Long Beach to downtown LA and is intersected by the Green Line, is. I saw young people taking the train to classes at Trade Tech. There were workers who presumably didn't have cars and those with cars who chose it's convenience, many like myself with packed lunches. Some of what the reporter describes is true -- people begging or selling candy was an almost daily occurrence. I also occasionally saw people talking to themselves or acting aggressively. But many were probably mentally ill and not a freak show to be made fun of. He may not have intended to make fun of them but that is what his tone implies. The first anecdote is of someone urinating on the train, something I've never seen. And I wonder if his descriptions were from several days of taking the train or one long day, rather than one commute, since he saw more than what I experienced in weeks of taking the Blue Line. On most rides, people mind their own business, are polite and things go smoothly. To the rider, it's not constant theater, as he puts it:

In a place dominated by freeways and the automobile's numbing isolation, the 22-mile light-rail line — the oldest in L.A. County, marking 20 years of service this summer — is a rolling improvisational theater where a cast of thousands acts out a daily drama that is by turns poignant, sad, hysterical and inexplicable.

I'm not sure what the point of the article was. Because of the anniversary? But I'm sure there are better stories to tell, stories of people who are often overlooked in society and by the mainstream media.

Mileage count: Week 2

For week two of sharing my mileage in my blog I'm proud to say I have an improvement to report: 281 miles instead of 363. What made the difference was one day of taking the train, which I hadn't done in months. I also jumped on my bike a few times to cut out short trips.

Here's the daily breakdown:

• Monday: On my day off, I drove 15 miles to a doctor's appointment and to my softball game.
  

• Tuesday: Drove to work. 64 miles.
  

• Wednesday: Drove to work. 64 miles.
  

• Thursday: I took the train to work so I drove only nine miles. Hooray! And made good headway in the book that I had been neglecting.
  

• Friday: Back to driving to work. But I did bike to the gym at 5:45 am. 64 miles.
  

• Saturday: Drove to work, blah blah. 65 miles. Biked a mile to my friend's house (in boots, thank you very much) and then we walked down to 2nd Street for dinner.

• Sunday: Another no-driving Sunday. I'll call it a biking Sunday. I biked to the same friend's house so we could go running, then biked home, changed and biked to a park 1.5 miles away for softball practice. Coming home I was pretty exhausted and hungry. Yes driving would have been easier but biking isn't too bad, as long as I stay in a two-mile radius of my apartment.
  

Mileage count: Week 1

It's the end of the first week of my experiment to publicly share my mileage. All added up, I drove a grand total of 363 miles. Now that you're done gasping and can read again, here's how it breaks down:

• Monday (my day off): I rode my bike to the gym instead of driving. This is something I should do on a regular basis since it's a whoppin' 1.5 miles away. I drove 16 miles to drop some stuff off at Goodwill and go to the nearby Target. I ended the day getting a ride to my softball game.

• Tuesday: Drove to and from work for a total of 64 miles.

• Wednesday: Another 64-mile commute.
  

• Thursday: At the end of a 13-hour work day, the 110 ramp is closed so I take a detour, adding an extra two miles and a lot of internal cursing at L.A. (My co-worker's guess the next day was that it was closed for filming, which made me even more annoyed.) Total=66 miles.

• Friday: I add an extra 20 miles to my commute to drive to a school to work with a student. Total=82 miles.
  

• Saturday: 66 miles driving to work (I discover that my all-freeway route on Saturdays is slightly longer), then five miles round-trip to meet friends for dinner. I considered biking but I was already running late. Total=71 miles.
  

•  To end the week, I had a no-car Sunday. Since I've taken public transportation to work and liked it, I decided to take the bus to Home Depot. When I'm in my car doing errands I don't think twice about adding another destination or driving to the nice mall over the one that's closest (as I did on New Year's Day, Christmas gift cards in hand). But when you're leaving your car behind, running errands becomes simpler and more streamlined, but not faster so you have to have extra time on your hands. But it did help in my environmental goal of not over-consuming since I couldn't impulse buy and throw whatever I bought in the car.

The Home Depot is three miles away but easy to get to by bus since it's just a straight shot up Cherry. So I walked 15 minutes from my apartment to Cherry, waited about eight minutes for the bus, then rode on the bus for 10 minutes. I got my paint samples and headed out. On the way back the bus came as soon as I arrived at the bus stop. And getting off at 4th Street, I browsed in some antique stores on Retro Row on my walk home with the sun shining (hint, I was enjoying myself). The extra time it took wasn't a big deal but I think that's partly because of the novelty of it all. I'm not sure how often I could do this, or if I could extend it to a whole weekend.

For the rest of the day, I went running with two friends, walked to the grocery store just around the corner from my house and resisted the urge to drive to Target to return some things I'd bought earlier in the week.

A mile here, a mile there starts to add up

After visiting my sister and her family in Dallas for Christmas, I've realized that I can be an impatient, slightly pushy and self-centered Angeleno. So my new year's resolution is to be more considerate. I'll try to thank store clerks and waiters, ask politely for directions and not interrupt a salesperson helping someone else to ask where the bathroom is (I did really have to go). After several years of big city living and always being in a hurry, I found that in a city full of Southern manners where the pace was slower, I liked that people took the time to be gracious to one another. And I started being nicer in return (maybe it helped that I was on vacation and more relaxed). That felt good so I want to extend that positive energy throughout the year.

Despite the theme of my blog, I didn't make a new year's resolution related to the environment. I already do what I can and the big change I could make -- reducing the miles I drive -- is a resolution destined to be broken faster than you can say "diet." But in the spirit of the new year and new beginnings, and inspired by a suggestion from my co-worker Mike, for the next month I'm going to share my mileage in my blog. The goal of my public shaming is to become more aware of how much I drive.

I worked today but didn't remember my plan until I was midway through my morning commute so I'll start on Monday, Jan. 4. Mike recorded his purchases in his blog every day. In a similar vein, I'll be recording my exact mileage. The big culprit will be my commute but I'll also keep track of my weekend driving. This isn't the best timing because lately I've had the urge to redecorate and want to go furniture shopping, which of course involves a lot of driving. But I'm hoping it will force me to cut back, from getting back in the habit of taking public transportation to work to biking more on the weekend. I'll record my mileage every day and update my blog once a week with the total. Mike said his experiment made him more aware of the obvious: small purchases add up. I'm curious to see what I learn. It may be that saying thank you is easier than leaving my car at home.

Will too much carbon consumption make me fat?

On Monday I listened to a personal trainer talk about how to train properly for the new rugby season, which started tonight. He said that if you're working out hard, you need to eat enough calories to give you energy and quicken your recovery. Then he wrote a shockingly large number on the white board: 4,000 to 5,000 calories a day.

With rugby season underway, my calories are not the only number going up. My carbon consumption is also on the rise. No longer will I be taking public transportation to work once or twice a week. No, from now until November when the season ends, it'll be zero times a week. I need to drive to work on Tuesdays and Thursdays so I can drive to practice afterwards. And on Wednesdays, I need to drive so I can get to the gym in time to meet my workout partner and have enough energy for a good workout. No more jogging three miles from work to the train station and calling that my exercise for the day. Now I've gotta kick it up a notch and spend my evenings at practice or the gym or at the stairs or doing sprints.

Oh well, c'est la vie. My summer public transportation habit was nearing an end anyway. In about three weeks we'll start getting busy at work and I probably would've stopped taking the train then. It just came sooner than expected. So starting now, let the carbon counting begin!

Not every day is a good day to take the bus

I thought about taking public transportation to work three days this week but decided against it on Wednesday because I planned to go to the gym after work and didn't want to get home too late (it's a bit slower than driving). So Tuesday and today I took the train to work, but Wednesday I drove and got a flat tire. Hmm, maybe there's a message in that.

Jokes aside, I'm proud that I took the train twice this week. When summer rolled around, I started sporadically taking it again, as I'd done last summer, and this week is my first double. If I'd gone for the triple maybe that mysterious nail or whatever it was wouldn't have lodged itself in my front passenger tire. But luckily the tire just needed to be patched and not replaced. It took a half hour after work and I got to the gym late (irony noted), but all in all it wasn't so bad.

What I really learned this week is that I need to plan out my public transportation days better. I forgot about my book club meeting when I decided to take the train on Tuesday, so by the time I got home I was going to be late so I decided not to go. Then today I planned to run from my office to the train station after work, which saves time because I get my exercise as I'm commuting home. But I'd forgotten that I'm starting tomorrow at a school and needed to bring some stuff home with me. So instead of heading out for a three-mile run at 6 p.m., I sprinted to the bus stop (carrying my bag with my unused running clothes in it). I got stuck in the no-bus dead zone and caught a 16 bus 10 minutes later. I swear that was the slowest bus ever so by the time I got home I was hungry but still had to run. I definitely got that message. I'm not going to take the 16 bus in the evening because it's so unpredictable. It saves time to run to the train station and take the Red Line to the Blue line. So next week, I'll try to plan better.

Bus blues

I have failed yet again in my quest to find the "magic" public transportation route to work that takes no longer than driving. Today I scratched the 720 Rapid bus off my list of options, at least in the way I took it today.

Let me start by saying that the MTA uses the term "rapid" loosely. It was only 10 or so minutes faster than the plodding 16 bus. But with the extra walking I had to do, it ended up taking longer.

I've got the first leg of my journey down because there's only one option. I take the Blue Line lightrail train from Long Beach to downtown LA. But once I get off the train, I've got options galore. Too bad none of them involve a car waiting to whisk me to my office six miles away. My regular route is to walk three blocks to 5th Street and grab the 16 or 316 bus, which runs along 3rd Street and drops me off in front of my office. It takes about 30 minutes and on a good day I get to work right at 9 a.m.

Today was what I call a "bus fail day" and on the way home it turned into a "train fail day," but that I'll get to later. I decided to experiment because I'd always wondered if taking the 720 would be faster. The problem is that the 720 runs along Wilshire, although the downtown stop is on 5th Street. So I walked my usual few blocks to a different part of 5th Street where I caught the 720, but then 20 minutes later it dropped me off at Wilshire and La Brea and I still had to walk another 15 minutes to my office on 3rd (if you're familiar with LA, yes I basically walked several blocks north of Wilshire twice). The good part is that I got to walk more, the bad part is that walking is unfortunately the slowest mode of transportation possible. It didn't help that I had been a little late arriving at the Blue Line station and was running 10 minutes late to begin with, but I got to work close to 9:30 this morning. Oops.

But I don't give up that easy. The 16 bus may be the slow and steady option for me, but a girl's gotta play the field before she settles down! So I have one more route to try, which is taking the Blue Line to the Red Line, then briefly taking the 720 from Western and Wilshire to La Brea and Wilshire, then walking. OK, that may sound crazy, especially to people who live close to their office or don't live in L.A., but when you live 30 miles from work in a city with a pathetic public transporation system, you're willing to work with things as best you can for the sheer joy of not having to drive, not putting miles on your car and not paying $3.15 a gallon for gas.

So I promised to explain why I failed on the way home too. This was all my fault. Things started out fine. I ran from work to the Red Line station at Western and Wilshire again, which I'm liking, but then feeling tired after the run, I spaced out on the train and missed my stop at the 7th Street Metro Center. I ended up taking the Red Line all the way to Union Station. I jumped out of the train and jumped into a waiting train heading in the other direction, barely getting in before the doors closed. I'll have to remember to pay more attention next time.

We had a former student stop into our office today who grew up in LA but didn't know anything about the rail system. She had just returned from a semster studying in Paris and loved taking the Metro because she felt more connected to the city and the people. I don't get that same satisfaction using L.A.'s system because it fights you all the way. And so few people use public transportation that I don't feel like part of something greater. The Red Line train was empty today (in both directions, oops) from around 6:45-7:15 p.m. I would expect it to be popular since it's in the heart of LA but apparently not, although maybe it's busy earlier. It's too bad more people don't try out the train and bus, although I can't say I blame them either.

Taking the bus out of the equation

I had a great experience taking public transportation today. And no, I'm not referring to the verbally abusive woman asking for money on the Blue Line train this morning (raise your hand if you think calling someone -- no it wasn't me -- a b**** will get you a free handout). No, it's because I saved time and killed two birds with one stone by running part of my commute home.

At 6 p.m. I changed into my running clothes, put my bus pass, ID, credit card and some emergency cash in my back zippered pocket, grabbed my cell phone, iPod and keys and headed out the door, feeling light and unencumbered. The distance from my office to the Red Line station is three miles so I ran through the neighborhood streets of the mid-Wilshire district, into the tree-lined streets with million-dollar homes in Hancock Park, then into Koreatown, turning down Western for the last quarter mile to the Red Line station at Wilshire. It took about 30 minutes but I saved time because I'd gotten my exercising out of the way. And it put me in control of my commute because I didn't have to wait for the bus and be at its mercy. I know the Red Line train comes at 6:41 and by changing up my pace, I can make sure to get there in time.

I took the Red Line to downtown, where I switched to the Blue Line and pretty much slept until my stop. But it didn't matter that I was tired or that it was late (7:45) because I didn't need to find motivation to run or go to the gym. I parked my car at my apartment at 8:01 p.m. and felt so good. I had plenty of time to cook dinner (not reheat a meal or nuke a veggie burger, but actually cook) and even treated myself to a beer.

This is a good option for me in the summertime, when it's still light out when I'm running and it feels safe being on the train a little later than I normally would be. Sure, I would have preferred the city planners to have some foresight and extend the Red Line farther west when it was originally built, but this isn't a bad backup plan.

Back to the bus

I took public transportation to work today for the first time in, well, so long I can't remember. It was like riding a bike. It all came back to me ... what time I had to leave my place, what time the Blue Line train arrived to take me to downtown LA, and where to walk to catch the bus to my office.

The trip to work was pretty uneventful and the train and bus were surprisingly uncrowded. On the way home it was a little hairier but that's always the case. I never know when the bus will arrive so I sometimes rush out of the office only to sit at the corner and wait 10 minutes, like today. But I got home at my usual "bus" time and got some exercise in the form of speed walking from the bus to the train (only to sit another 10 minutes) so I can't complain.

It takes longer to take public transportation to work so sometimes I grudgingly do it, but one great benefit is that I have time to read the newspaper cover to cover ... I even inspect the ads. Bumping along Third Street on the bus this morning, I read on A9 about a digital camera class at Samy's that I decided to take on Sunday. However, tomorrow it's back to my car because I have to drive somewhere for work. I'm definitely not complaining.

City limits

The type of TV I watch all depends on the company. With others or my old roommates, I gravitate to shows that spark conversation like reality TV (Biggest Loser, Top Chef, and Project Runway and Top Model for a while until I got bored of them ... and of course the big cheese Jon Stewart). But I've noticed that when I watch TV by myself I can really nerd out. The lowest moment was when I didn't have cable and during the presidential election I got into -- I mean, really got into -- CSPAN. These days my 100-plus channels mean my choices are broader (Jon and Kate anyone?) but I still have a soft spot in my heart for those oft-ignored channels I used to frequent, such as PBS. This is all to explain why I found myself watching an episode of American Experience on KLCS about the history of test tube babies. I was enthralled as soon as they started talking about the first test tube baby born in England in the not-so-distant year of 1978, when the procedure was highly controversial. So I stuck around to the end of the show, and thank god. Because the next show was even more interesting. It was about Portland, a city I'm not that familiar with but am intrigued by because of its green reputation. And since Facebook tells me it's where I should be living, I had to watch. Maybe it was the nerdy TV watcher in me, but it was fascinating.

If you know a lot about Portland, this probably won't be new to you. All I knew was that it's a bike-friendly city with progressive residents in a beautiful location (I marveled at the pine trees -- real trees, not palms or god forbid, giant billboards! -- that ran alongside a freeway on my last and only second visit there. It was for a rugby tournament so I didn't get to see much of the city. My only other visit was very brief a decade ago). But what I learned is that Portland's bike culture and it's embracing of public transportation is tied to a 30-year-old decision to limit growth (and good land-use policy). Wise Portlandians (is that what they're called?) stopped urban sprawl in its tracks (er, tires?) with its "urban growth boundary," which put a border around the city and restricted development on the other side. The boundary has grown by only 12 percent in the last 30 years. This means the city is surrounded by farms, wineries and nature. This has had all sorts of positive effects, including dense neighborhoods with good public transportation, a downtown resurgence, farms just 20 miles away and lots of farmers markets with local produce. They have a network of streetcars and lightrail, making it possible to travel from north Portland to downtown in 20 minutes. For someone living in sprawling, freeway-filled, car-congested LA, this was heaven. Those Portlandites (is that what they're called?) are a proud people. This quote was a dagger to my heart: "“We’re not driving 34 miles a day.” Try 60 a day, roundtrip.

The city boundary is not without its critics. Landowners say the city is taking away their rights to sell their land to developers and make money. Some also say it's hard to find the American dream of a suburban house with a yard. The most valid concern is the lack of affordable housing. The city works best for professional singles like yours truly, who want to be near a lively urban core.

It was surreal watching little girls filling up the same red Trader Joe’s bags I own with organic, freshly picked produce like summer squash from a farm 25 miles from their house. I carry my Trader Joe’s bags to the grocery store and fill them with pathetic, wilting produce, passing over the organic produce because it’s so expensive in the grocery store ($3 for a cucumber, really Ralph's?).

And if that wasn't making me salivate, then I learned they actually tore up a freeway that was built alongside the river in the 60s and replaced it with a downtown riverfront park.

I know that even though the show covered concerns over the boundary and a recent ballot measure that would have allowed more development outside it, this was a rosy view of the city. But it made me want to visit to see for myself what it's like and if it truly is a dream city for someone wanting to decrease their carbon footprint, eat fresh foods, use public transportation to get to work, walk to restaurants and shops, and live in a place that's exciting and easy. Long Beach has a lot of those attributes but it's part of a greater metropolis. I don't work in Long Beach so I do that 60-mile commute every day. And as much as I love my city, it's still trying to create a vibrant, culture-rich downtown, the kind that Portlanders (that's what they're called) can take advantage of every day.

Red Line patience

The Los Angeles Times' intrepid transportation reporter Steve Hymon had an update on the Red Line "subway to the sea" extension in today's paper. According to the brief, the good news is that they've approved an environmental study. The bad news is that, like all government projects, that's just the very first step and construction on the extension won't begin before 2013. It's just another reminder that as much as I like the idea of taking the subway to work, it ain't gonna happen anytime soon.

Seeing this reminded me of a story my co-worker forwarded to me a few weeks ago about the expected openings of various subway lines and bus routes in Los Angeles. Among the listing was: Green Line to LAX -- 2016 to 2018. It never made sense why the Green Line subway stopped just short of LAX in the first place, but why it would take so long to add a few miles of track seems ludicrous. I know these things are more complicated than one could imagine, but still, eight to 10 years? Kinda makes you glad that gas prices are low because even though higher gas prices discourage driving, there aren't great alternatives in LA, and there won't be anytime soon. Sigh.

Time to TAP

Metro's TAP card, an easier way to pay for your ride

I got home from work today at 10:30 p.m., tired from a long day, but got a boost of energy from a surprise in my mailbox. Inside a fat envelope with a mysterious return address I found my free five-day Metro pass. Yes, I was excited, seeing as how I love anything that's free. (A discount gives me a jolt of happiness too, like the $1 off coupon I used at the Coffee Bean this morning on the latte I paid for with a gift card I got for Christmas. That in a way relates to my blog because I also got 10 cents off because I brought my own travel mug. Savings galore!)

After moving into my new apartment in the fall, I received an offer in the mail from Metro for a free five-day pass. The offer said "welcome to the neighborhood" and asked about my previous experiences using Metro buses and rail lines, as I presume a way for Metro to do some market research.

It has been weeks since I mailed off my offer so I'd actually forgotten all about it. It's a pretty smart campaign on Metro's part. They sent me a TAP card, which you put money on and then reuse over and over again (like a college meal card). When it runs out of money, you just load it up again at a rail station, customer service center or online at taptogo.net. The only drawback for someone like me who doesn't take the train every day is that you can only use it for a weekly or monthly pass, not a day pass. So while I'd seen ads for the TAP since I started taking the Blue Line last spring, I figured I'd never get one. It also seemed like a hassle because I didn't know where to initially get a card. If it involved going to a customer service center or spending extra time at the train station when I'd rather just get home, it probably wasn't going to happen. But now that I have a TAP card, I'll have to see if it motivates me to buy weekly passes and take the train more often.

As for my week of free travel, I think I'll wait to start until next week when I'm no longer on deadline at work and getting home much, much after sundown. It's good timing because I've been terrible about taking public transportation since the fall (hmm, funny how that coincides with the falling cost of gas). I'd been thinking I needed to recommit myself to taking public transporation at least one or two days a week after our deadlines passed. Now that I have my TAP card, I really, really have no excuse not to.

Train dreams and bus wishes

My mass transit life is on a downward spiral.

In May I started taking public transporation to work when I could. And back then I could fairly often -- two to three days a week. It was our "quiet" time when it's possible to leave right on time, or even a few minutes early, to catch the bus. I was leaving traffic and congestion behind and living the life.

But lately my public transporation commitment has been tested. We've gotten busier at work and I've started twice-weekly rugby practices, which I need to drive to. So now I'm down to taking public transportation just one day a week.

It would be more convenient to drive every day but I'm trying to stick to one day a week. For one, I want to save on gas. Even with prices back to what I was paying in May, it still ain't cheap. But my real motivation is to do more than just talk the talk of an environmentalist. It'll get harder again as summer fades and it gets darker sooner. I think it should still be safe but I have a feeling I won't be quite as carefree (and by that I mean zoned out reading the paper or listening to the shows I've podcasted) going through Watts and Compton on my way home.

The other day at the bar after rugby practice, one of my teammates mentioned that she carpools to work in Glendale. She lives in Long Beach too and I know she's been carpooling for years, way before it became cool because of global warming/high gas prices. She said she could take the train but it would take way too long. How long, I asked. Two hours. Man I felt like the uncool kid -- why was I putting up with these long trips? And this was a day after I'd worked late with a student and then ended up taking the train with her and giving her a ride home to San Pedro from where my car was parked at a Blue Line station. That meant I wasn't home to Long Beach until 9 p.m. My teammate is probably right that carpooling is better, but I don't think I can carpool since I wouldn't have as much flexibiltiy. But maybe I should keep an open mind. I used to say that taking public transporation wasn't an option because my office isn't near a rail line stop, but I've proven myself wrong. Well, kind of.

I wish LA had a better public transportation system so it was faster and easier to get around. Having to transfer from a fairly fast rail line to a bus really slows things down. And even with my office moving later this year to a slightly closer location, it'll still take just as long (and require two stinkin' transfers). I was asked today by someone why I lived so far from where I work. I told him I loved living in Long Beach. I've said that for four years and it's still true, but I'm definitely tired of driving to work and, at the moment, of my alternative.

The 720

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?

Bus woes

Last Friday was not a good day for the bus.

I planned to see a movie (yes of course Batman) after work with a friend. I drove to work since I didn't want to take the train home late at night. But impressively, my friend took the train, knowing he'd be taking it back late at night after the movies. He's taken the train to work before but this time he was boasting of his "zero carbon emissions" since he biked instead of driving to the Red Line station near his house. Yet when he asked how to get to my office, which is near the Grove where we'd be seeing the movie, this is what I ran up against (recreated as best I remember):

"Is there a train station near your office?"

"No, it's three miles away. The easiest way is to take the bus."

"No way."

"No it's not bad, really. I take the bus. You can get on the 16 downtown. It'll drop you off right in front of my office or the Grove."

I wasn't able to sway him so the discussion ended with me agreeing to pick him up from the Red Line station three miles from my office and then drive us three miles back to the movie theater. For anyone counting, yes that's a total of six miles that I hadn't planned on driving.

"These are your six miles," I told him. He was a good sport and accepted them.

So he didn't have a zero carbon footprint day but he could have if riding the bus was more accepted.

Which brings me to problem #2. As I was driving to pick up my friend, blocks away my coworker was stuck waiting 30 minutes for her bus to come. She arrived five minutes early but the 6:12 p.m. bus just didn't come. And this was a busy bus stop on a major street during a peak commuting time. She said she could have been home in 20 minutes, so she was making a sacrifice by taking the bus since she after her bus finally arrived she still needed to transfer to another one. Since she doesn't live too far away from work she's not saving money by taking the bus, she's doing it for the environment. But I'm sure stuff like this will make her think twice next Friday morning when she's thinking of taking the bus again.

So, if I had someone from the MTA in front of me, this is what I'd say. You need a new marketing campaign to attract professionals to want to get out of their cars and take the bus. You need a better website. Mta.net is a mess, especially for first-time visitors. It's enough to put you back in your car. And finally (and perhaps firstly), you need to make a bigger commitment to having your buses run on time. I know, you can't add more buses overnight but there must be something you can do now (more supervisors and oversight?). Taking the bus won't become more popular if it takes twice as long to get home.

Speaking of which, I'm planning on taking the train and bus to work tomorrow. Pray for me!

Dear Bus Driver: Thank you

Maybe I'm a sucker, but if a stranger says good evening to me, it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

"Good evening." That's what my bus driver said today when I got off the bus. That was a first. Most bus drivers don't speak to you at all, and then there are the ones who aren't very nice or drive so aggressive it's scary. She was the nicest bus driver I've come across, by far. She was even nice to the people causing her trouble.

This was the 316 fast bus, which skips some stops that the 16 makes. We stopped at a red light and some people tried to get off the bus at a 16 stop. "This isn't a stop," she said. "You can't get off here. You need to read the signs when you get on." Then she let them off or they pushed the door open anyway, and she still ended her lecture with "thank you."

She elicited thank yous from almost everyone who got off the bus. Some had a specific reason to be courteous, like the guy who has asked what stop was closest to the 16 stop he usually gets off at, but others hadn't said a word to her but still said thank you when they got off the bus. All I can figure is that it was an unspoken acknowledgment for making their bus ride a pleasant experience, for infusing the bus with a "lets all get along" vibe. Well, she had me at hello (actually she said good afternoon when I got on the bus). So when I got off downtown with only a few passengers remaining on the bus, I felt bold and yelled "thank you" from the rear exit.

I e-mailed MTA customer service tonight to let them know how pleasant and respectful she was. I didn't get her name but I told them the route and time so hopefully they can look up who was driving. She deserves some recognition because Metro needs more drivers like that. It would be great to have that kind of experience all the time because it really did put me in a better mood.

Who's in charge of this nut house?

The danger (or benefit, depending on how you look at it) of people knowing I have an environmental blog is that whenever I tell a story I get asked, "Are you going to blog about it?", which just reminds me that I should and if I don't, it's because I'm being lazy. So, to clear my conscious, here's a story about today's commute, with the theme: who's in charge of this nut house?

Things started off great. I left work early with a four-day holiday weekend ahead of me. After waiting seven minutes or so, the bus approaches, and it's the fast 316. I pull out my day pass, stand near the curb and "hail" the bus in the way I've seen others do it -- not raising my arm like I'm hailing a taxi, but subtly pointing my arm out toward the ground. Well, apparently I should have been more obvious. The bus zoomed right on by. I understand when buses don't stop because they literally don't have room for one more passenger, but I saw standing room. There was room for me. I text a friend in anger. Then after five minutes or so, the slow 16 comes by and picks me up. This bus is full too and it's the usual rush hour dance -- I hold the strap and sway to the rhythm of the road, then more space opens up farther back and I move, only to be in the way of a woman exiting the bus. Then I'm in the way again and keep moving back. It lightens up after Western and I finally sit.

But the first half of my commute was just the appetizer. Things got more fun when I got downtown. At the 7th Street Metro Station, I turned the corner to go down the stairs to the Blue Line platform and saw a mass of people on my platform. What are they all doing here? Now that's a photo for people who think no one takes the train. Before I felt the need to ask a stranger what was going on, they announce that a train is coming. Oh god, I thought, there's going to be a riot. They made another announcement, this time saying that three trains were coming within minutes of each other and not everyone was going to fit on the first train. I don't have much faith in people (individual people yes, but in a group they turn tribal), and sure enough, tons of people squeezed onto the first train like sardines, leaving those of us still on the platform to haughtily laugh at their shortsightedness.

The next train came a few minutes later and I got on. I spent most of the ride standing in the corner behind a guy with a bike with nowhere to grip. Inevitably, at a big lurch he fell back into me and I put my hand on his back to stop him (thankfully he wasn't sweaty or smelly, which is quite common on the train). He apologized but I said it was OK because I saw it as me helping him not fall over. We all have to work together here, people. Which leads me to the most interesting part of the ride. At the Florence stop a guy jumped on as soon as the doors opened and blocked the people who wanted to get off. Bike Guy yelled at him but he acted like nothing was wrong. So there I was squished against the wall, with Bike Guy in front of me and now Rude Guy pushing up against us as a dozen people squeezed past to get off the train. Oh hey, did I mention taking public transportation is just swell. Everyone should do it!

I can laugh about this because I was in a good mood. But if this had been a normal Thursday, I might have given Rude Guy a piece of my mind. OK, I'm totally not that person. I probably would have been crying on the inside by the time I got home, then washed away the pain with some chocolate. What I did do was tell my friend, to which she replied, "Are you going to blog about it?"

David Lazarus takes the bus

First it was reusable grocery bags that went from eccentric hippie status to cool. Now it's taking the bus. I keep reading stories by reporters about their experience with taking public transportation. The latest is today's column by Los Angeles Times business columnist David Lazarus (who does great work), about his week of taking public transporation to work, experimenting each day with different bus lines and the subway to find out which is quickest and easiest. (As a sidenote: Sadly, each article I read has a higher gas price. His begins, "With the price of gas creeping toward $5 a gallon ...")

I agree with most of his observations, except when he says he arrived home exhausted on the first day. Sure, it's tricky at first when you don't know the routes, but I think he should have mentioned that after you get the hang of it, it's actually more relaxing than driving. Maybe that wasn't his experience, but it's been mine. But I'm glad he wrote it as a way to get more Angelenos thinking about taking public transportation, at least one day a week as he suggests. To quote: "Baby steps."

A statistic I can be proud to be part of

With gas prices above $4 a gallon, I'm not the only person in LA exploring the web of train and bus routes for the first time. According to the Los Angeles Times, the number of people riding the train is up 15 percent so far this year (wow!) and bus ridership has risen 8 percent. I'm used to opening up the newspaper and reading about what other people are doing. This time, I'm a part of that statistic and it feels good because I'm not contributing as much car pollution and I'm helping to support a mostly ignored public transportation system. The miles I'm not putting on my car aren't bad either.

And of course, I'm not the only one writing about using public transportation, since the concept is still new enough to be a novelty in this city of freeways. Although snarky, I liked this story by a BBC reporter about his first time taking the subway in LA: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7413056.stm

Karma is a b****

This is just a quick follow-up to my last post. My "steady" -- aka public transportation -- must have gotten word of my complaint about his lateness yesterday because today was payback time. This morning I was tricked into getting on a train going IN THE WRONG DIRECTION! I went one stop south, then had to get off and wait for the next train heading to LA. I know that sounds ridiculous, but here's a little secret about the Blue Line's Willow station: the 7:35 a.m. bus arrives on the southbound tracks from LA because it stops at Willow and then returns to LA instead of continuing south through Long Beach. At least, that's what it normally does. This morning was like the Twilight Zone. The train arrived two minutes early and then continued south instead of returning to LA. I had to laugh, even as I was unjustifiably embarrassed getting off the bus a mere stop after I'd gotten on (because really, who cared or was even paying attention to what I was doing).

Oh, and during my "dead zone" wait after work again, I snapped a photo of my new commuting shoes, taken in front of the poster at the bus stop for the Sex and the City movie. Fitting, since I'm probably as excited about my very comfortable brown suede Ahnu's from REI as Carrie Bradshaw was about a new pair of Manolo Blahniks!