As a lifelong public transportation rider, I’ll never understand the reluctance of many of my Brentwood neighbors to give public transportation a try. Since moving to the leafy neighborhood seven years ago I am embarrassed to tell you the number of times friends and neighbors alike have moved away from me when I mention that I am a Metro TAP card carrying and Big Blue Bus rider. And not only me, my 10th and 9th graders have been riding for years to Revere and Pali, and now my 6th grader is on board as well, navigating the Metro # 2 Sunset bus as if she has been commuting to school for years. With a commute that is the envy of everyone, my wife now rides the # 3 Big Blue Bus from Bundy and Montana to downtown Santa Monica.
Admittedly, it took a car accident on the 10 to get this New York City girl who grew up riding the subway and bus everywhere to commute by bus in LA. But frankly, as drivers in LA, most of us have had teachable moments like my wife’s accident, which was caused by a driver who was probably texting. Though the ride is not long enough to get through a book chapter, my wife, like many of her fellow commuters, tends to read and listen to her iPod while commuting.
Currently a communications and business consultant, my bus of choice is the Metro Wilshire 720 Rapid. While I am waiting for the Subway to the Sea and a true dedicated bus rapid transit (BRT) line to be built along Wilshire, I find the 720 a far less stressful way to get to meetings in Beverly Hills and downtown, than driving.
If I am heading all the way downtown, I tend to transfer to the Purple Line subway at Wilshire and Western. That’s the current end of the line for the Wilshire subway that, but for politics, should have been completed to Santa Monica years ago. On a Metro subway map the Wilshire Purple Line looks to me like a stump, wrongly amputated by two of the Westside’s longest serving, and generally well-regarded politicians. Perhaps that is why they are both now working so hard to help along the line they hindered so effectively for so long at everyone’s expense.
With congestion in Brentwood and on the Westside generally, beyond atrocious, the time has come for area residents who have never ridden or have not ridden in years, to give Metro and the Big Blue Bus a try. While I would never promise that the Wilshire subway and greater bus ridership will solve LA’s traffic problems, commuting on public transportation gives those who choose to ride or with no alternative, a safe, inexpensive and generally fast way to get from point A to point B.
And at $24 a month for an unlimited ride Metro Student TAP card, you may find there is simply no reason to drive your kids to Pali, Revere, Brentwood or Archer again. See the Metro website at http://www.metro.net/ to plan your next trip and to learn about getting a TAP, Student TAP, or Senior/Disabled TAP card. I refill my kids’ cards at Ralph’s on Bundy and Wilshire but there are many other outlets throughout the city that sell Metro products.
The regular cost of Metro is $1.50 a ride or $6 for an unlimited day pass. Seniors and the disabled pay 25 cents a ride or $1.80 for a day pass. The Big Blue Bus costs $1 or 50 cents for students, seniors and the disabled and there are also additional discounts available for monthly passes and the popular 13 rides for $12 cards available at the Santa Monica libraries and at other locations. UCLA students with a Bruin card pay 35 cents and Santa Monica College students ride free. See: http://bigbluebus.com/ for routes, fares, and other information on the Big Blue Bus. Google Transit at: http://www.google.com/transit/ is another good way to plan your trip on public transportation, but note that the Big Blue Bus data has yet to be added to the site.
Whether you live north of Sunset or within walking distance of San Vicente, Wilshire, or Bundy there are good public transportation options available to you.
Another day alone in the car makes no sense. So try the bus. In all likelihood it goes where you are going at least some of the time. And it runs on an intelligible schedule and does not require driving, parking, insurance and washing, as does your car. What is more, most buses have racks in the front for several bikes so you can bike, rather than drive or get a lift, to the bus stop.
Yours in transit,
Joel
