LA Busgirl in the city…

Yesterday I decided to take the bus to work… Yes, I live in LA, yes, I have a car, and yes, I thought it was a good idea to save some gas and help cleanup the air.

No, I had no idea how bad the bus system in LA is. Normally it takes me 20 to 30 min. to drive from my neighborhood, near the Grove shopping center (an abomination I like to call the “Gross”) to my office in downtown near Pershing Square.

I used MTA’s handy-dandy trip planner to learn that the bus stop is only 2 blocks from my house and I could catch a bus at 9:03 that would get me downtown in 30 minutes! Wow, not only would I be early for work (something sure to impress my employer since my usual late arrival is accompanied by excuses like, "my dog at my alarm clock"), but I could read the paper, listen to kanye on my ipod and save the environment!

I arrived at the bus stop just before 9:00, and then waited until 9:12, which was fine, since 30 min. meant I would still arrive at work by 10. The bus picked up me and one other man/woman (not sure which, had boobs, AND a lot of facial hair though he/she smiled at me, which is something that impresses me at 9am. Not being a morning person, I rarely smile until I’ve had at least one soy latte).

I put my $1.25 into the meter and asked the toothpick chomping bus driver if he stopped at Pershing Square.
“Well, “ he said, “maybe, maybe not,” as he smiled at me.
I laughed and noted, “That’s rather tentative.”
He told me that I needed to get off at 5th and Grand and then walk down the hill, something the MTA trip planner neglected to mention. But that was fine, it only added a block to my 3 block stroll.

The bus was about 1/2 full, and I sat in an empty row excited to read my magazine and listen to music. I whipped out last month’s New Yorker (the damn thing comes EVERY week; I’m months behind) and had just flipped to the movie review when the bus jostled to a stop, about 2 blocks from where it had picked me up. As one person got off, I noticed that the bus had a digital readout board above the driver’s head that displayed the next stop, so I could be sure not to miss 5th and Grand, since I assumed the stop after 5th and Grand could be miles from my office. Assured that I would get off at the right time, I glanced back down at my magazine.

BUMP! The bus stopped again, this time about 3 blocks from the previous stop. A cute guy with a computer backpack got on. Which of course started me thinking of some NEW benefits to busridership! Perhaps a way to meet a nice guy? He passed by me without even noticing my cute pink computer bag, which I bought specifically to attract nice guys, and sat in the back of the bus. Sigh… I picked up the New Yorker, found the page I was reading again, when JERK! The bus stopped again. Now about 4 blocks from the cute guy’s stop. Ok, this was getting annoying, I assumed the bus would stop every few miles on Beverly as it headed downtown, but it seemed to be stopping every few blocks! By the time we reached Vermont, we had stopped about 12 times! It was too difficult to read with the starts and stops, so I settled in to observe people coming and going, and calculating exactly how long it was going to take me to get downtown, and the excuse I would have to give for being late...again.

As we drove further east, the bus filled up and then emptied out, like the bellows of an accordion. Now people were standing, then sitting, then pulling the “stop requested” line. Though most of the riders already settled in when I had gotten on appeared to be headed for work; east of Van Ness, more and more families, women with children and teenage kids mounted the bus for a few blocks, then got off. Hmm, I pondered… why wouldn’t they take a more local bus that circulated in the area, surely it would come more often, and that way the bus headed downtown could skip several blocks before stopping again.

At the next few stops, I checked the MTA sign on each corner to see what buses serviced that stop, and discovered that my bus was the ONLY one that serviced most of those stops! No wonder we had to pick up passengers every 2 blocks. No one had a choice! They had to take this bus, because it was the only one!!

Once we hit downtown, the bus stopped at 1st and Grand, and would again stop every 1-2 blocks, I couldn’t stand it anymore so I got off at 2nd and Grand, and walked the extra blocks. It was 10:02. My trip had taken 50 minutes, I hadn’t been able to read at all, the cute guy hadn’t noticed me, and I’m not so sure I saved half an hour’s worth of the environment!

MTA wonders why people don’t take the bus more often?? Well, I can tell them why! We need more local buses that circulate in small areas and stop at the stops frequently so people have some choices. And the longer distance buses should only stop every few miles, not every few feet!!

To say the least, I had friend drive me home last night. I think that will be my last bus adventure… well, at least until I decide to scope out cute guys on my bus route…