MetroRiderLA

Yep, I finally did it. I’ve been promising myself for over a year that I would see what it’s like to ride the bus from little Atwater Village all the way to ritzy Beverly Hills and try to do my part for the environment, for the city and for my sanity. And you know what, it was easy.

On Friday, I rode from Universal City — as I had dropped off my car at the dealer to get fixed — but today was all Atwater/Beverly Hills. I took the 603 and the 4 and was to and from work within an hour.

And you know what? I’m gonna freakin do it again…at least one day a week and then, perhaps expand from there. Hell, I might even be able to read a book again. All I know is that I arrived at work and at home, relatively stress free, with an iPod song in my heart.

So, if you have been thinking about trying it out and doing it. As it has been said, just do it.

[tags]santa monica, big blue bus, bus stop[/tags]

Bus stop signage evolves, this time by Santa Monica’s Big Blue Bus. The westbound Line 7/Super 7 stop at Pico Boulevard and Bundy Drive has three elements. At the top is the standard Big Blue Bus triangle stop sign. The bottom two rectangles are the map and schedules of the buses, found at busier stops. But what’s that large rectangle in the middle?

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[tags]santa monica, big blue bus, santa monica college[/tags]

Size does not matter at the Big Blue Bus.

Santa Monica’s Big Blue Bus introduced Mini Blue, a small network of routes within the city running frequent service with midibuses The latest addition to this network is The Sunset Ride, an improved but not entirely new service.

This weekday-only route was formerly a shuttle run by Santa Monica College. Cutaway vans would connect the main campus on Pico Boulevard with remote parking lots and satellite campuses near the Santa Monica Airport and the Water Garden. Big Blue Bus took over these shuttles, made them into a single line and opened them to the public. Behold, the Sunset Ride.

The cutaway buses are gone, replaced by Big Blue Bus service — and not the small buses, either. For now, regular 40-foot buses operate on the route. College students may ride the bus free with ID, and are encouraged to park at the airport or the Academy of Entertainment Technlogy for free and take the bus to the main campus. The general public may ride for $0.50 ($0.25 for seniors and disabled riders). It only operates until 6 p.m., though, and the college has many classes held at night.

Map of the Sunset Ride, facing north, with a sample picture of the Mini Blue stop sign. Clicking on the map loads a PDF version from the Big Blue Bus site.

[tags]metrolink, ontario international airport, lax, express jet, los angeles[/tags]

ExpressJet flies out of Ontario Airport, and offers lower-fares and non-stop flights.

When it comes to airports in the Los Angeles region LAX isn’t the only game in town, but for the car-free the other options can seem unreachable. Ontario International Airport, the second largest airport in the L.A. area, is located in San Bernardino County and is about 43 miles from Downtown Los Angeles (LAX is about 18 miles from Downtown). Why attempt such a trek when LAX is so much closer and served by the fast and friendly FlyAway? In my case, on a recent trip to America’s heartland, it came down to money!

ExpressJet, a low-cost airline that flies out of Ontario (and not LAX), offered non-stop flights (duration: 2hrs 30min) to Oklahoma City for about $125 less than flights (with layovers) from LAX. The money and the chance to not have to spend 4-5 hours en route was enough to convince me that flying out of Ontario was something I needed to do. Now I just had to figure out how to get there…

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[tags]san diego, san diego trolley, mts, megabus[/tags]

Broadway, looking east from Santa Fe Depot, downtown San Diego

This is an addition to Tuesday’s trip to San Diego, courtesy of Megabus. The voyage was brief in time — only a little more than three hours between the bus arrival and train departure to L.A. — but covered a fair chunk of San Diego. These photos are peppered with some explanations and insights.

Come along for the ride. Try to come via Megabus, especially now that it has moved its stop to downtown San Diego. It is a fabulous bus service. And please forgive the rotgut quality of the photos taken by camera phone.

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[tags]metro, macarthur park, red line, subway, pepsi, vending machine[/tags]

This may be old news for some, but I don’t hit up MacArthur Park as often as I should. Yesterday I had to go to the Home Depot in the area so I hopped on the Red Line and as I left the MacArthur Park station I saw what can only be called a vending machine. Lit from within and glowing blue, it was a Pepsi machine like any other, but in a place traditionally void of such amenities. It looks like Metro is continuing to expand into more traditional rapid transit mainstays like advertising and now vending machines. Ironically however, food and drinks are not allowed on Metro trains or platforms. Metro’s answer to that conundrum and more pix after the jump…

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