Go Metro

It has been over two months since I became a regular bus rider.  As I shared in my previous article, my office recently moved from Koreatown (where I was able to reach with ease riding the subway) to Alhambra (which is not served by Metro rail at all).  Thus my morning commute now consists of 15 minutes of walking, a short ride on the subway, a 30-minute bus ride, and another 10 minutes on foot.  This is just to get to work; I have to do the reverse to return home.  Taking public transit to and from a suburb located about nine miles east of my home has been anything but convenient.  It would be easy for me to just complain about it endlessly or even give up on the bus altogether.  However, I have chosen to stick with it for now because I cannot dismiss riding the bus as an entirely bad experience.  As a planner who tends to think about and reflect upon my experiences (perhaps too much), I want to share the following observations about bus riding in Los Angeles.  I must clarify though that my comments are from my perspective as a public transit user only, not as a transportation planner, since I lack formal training and experience in the field of transportation planning. [Read more…] about Riding the Bus: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly