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LAT Reports on How Painful Public Transit Is
By Centinel | May 12, 2008
Bus Rides, originally uploaded by Centinel of the SGV. Taken while riding the bus and wishing I wasn’t.
Well, this is a report I did not expect to ever read: Bus ride traded forBMW.
By virtually any measure, Cliff Moore has a great commute. The kind of commute, I suspect, many of you would dearly love to have.
Moore lives in Altadena and works in Sun Valley, where he runs a real estate records library. On most days, he can leave home about 7:30 in the morning and make it to work in 25 minutes. That’s a little quicker than the national average, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. But Moore, 53, is not the happiest of campers these days. Why? He’d rather take the bus.
About five years ago, Moore got rid of his last car — it kept breaking down — and gave himself over to the bus, traveling about two hours each way to work. But when the MTA changed one of its routes and made the trip a little longer and more unpredictable, Moore used the $6,000 he had saved by riding the bus to purchase a 1995 BMW, thereby chopping his commute by 95 minutes.
And that hits the nail on the head. One of the reasons I’ve always enjoyed riding trains and taking public transportation is the time it gives you to read, write, and finish work that you would otherwise do at home. And then, one day, I realized that I could be reading, writing, and working from home, if I wasn’t on the bus. Instead of 4-5 hours of mediocre working conditions, I could enjoy NPR for an hour a day, and give myself three hours of great working conditions. I mean four hours a day on the bus: that’s at least a quarter of your waking hours. Who wants to spend 25% of their lives on the Murder Bus or any form of public transportation?
I also love this quote:
I like Moore’s tale for two reasons: Anyone who can stand riding the bus four hours each day is inherently interesting. And, it also says something about how difficult it is in this sprawling region to move people from suburb to suburb on mass transit.
You can talk about mass transit until the cows come home, but everyone agrees: few people in their right mind can spend four hours a day on a bus.
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Topics: Main Page, Transportation |
May 12th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
This is the number 1 problem with public transportation in LA: It doesn’t go where YOU want to go without a lot of BS and hassle. Look at the whole mess with the Red Line extension. The METRO board is debating over a bunch of proposals that all make about an equal amount of sense for prospective riders: ZERO.
Maybe if the buses and trains went places that people are interested in going more efficiently, more people would be interested in riding.
My own commute is almost door-to-door (bus to Gold Line to Blue Line) but it takes so much longer than driving, that I usually don’t even give it a second thought.
May 12th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
The bus is great but really insane people seem to like taking it when I do.
May 12th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
I agree w/ caltechgirl.
3 hours to Burbank…from PASADENA?!
May 12th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
Amen. The problem has no easy solution but putting in express rail between major points is a good starting point. From there light rail and buses can work.
May 12th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
How about creating space for private companies to come up with solutions, Frazgo? I think that would be a good starting point. Also, letting the true cost of driving and the true cost of public transit be borne by the people using it, thus allowing them to make informed decisions about the costs of their behavior (rather than hiding those costs behind indirect taxes).
I think THAT would be a good starting point. Picking one solution (like express rail) will never address the real issue, which is exposing costs rather than hiding them, and letting users pick the system that works best, rather than bureaucrats or well-meaning govt officials.
May 12th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
Coming up with solutions based on free market factors vs. mandates proposed by bureaucrats and well-meaning govt officials…….Hmmmmmm…my god man, it just might work!
May 12th, 2008 at 4:28 pm
I tried using public transportation, but to go from my home to my office it took two trains with uncoordinated times (Read: running like mad and making the connection if you’re lucky or missing it and waiting another two hours). My mother, on the other hand, loves taking the Metrolink, but then she has the time, plus me or my brother waiting to pick her up. Financially- the cost for the trains and buses vs. my car is not different enough to equal the stress… So much for our tax dollars at work!
May 12th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
I like the private company approach. One I’ve toyed with in a rather snarky approach and will eventually do it.
Our transportation problems are multilayered and need a few layers to make it work.
Express rail to move great distances quickly.
Smaller urban light rail to fill in some gaps.
Finally bus lines to get you between those stations and major housing/retail/employment centers.
Last I checked to get to downtown LA on the Gold Line was nearly an hour, adding in 20 minutes to get to the station and finding parking I was well over an hour. Then to get to the convention center between subway and bus it was nearly 20 minutes. Well over 1 1/2 hours for a 17 mile trip. Time wise it didn’t work for me.
In my not so humble opinion has the best transit system around. Express rail/tube/buses it is amazing how fast you can get around.
On our last vist we were near Hyde Park. We took the tube to Paddington Station, grabbed an express train, switched in Slough and were in Windsor in 45 minutes. Total distance was a bit over 25 miles. Fast, efficient and next to waiting for any connections.
We deserve better than we are getting.
May 12th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
I don’t own a car and take public transit everyday.
Taking it within a city (like Pasadena) is fine…unless you work late into the night or something..sucks for those that gotta wait around a few hours if they work to say, 4 in the morning.
Taking it to another city, however, totally sucks..especially when you gotta transfer.
I remember when I worked outside of Pasadena. Catching the bus at 5:30 a.m. just to barely get to my desination (Irwindale!) by 7:30.
May 13th, 2008 at 1:26 am
Really usable public transit requires a much more comprehensive and robust system. In order to financially support such a system much more dense development is necessary. Dense development without a functional transit system causes too much traffic to be politically acceptable.
Hence, the classic chicken and egg problem. So in order to develop a functioning transit system, either we have to suffer horrible traffic first (aka, the “traffic is the answer” position that has been posited on the FC blog many times) or transit has to be subsidized before it’s really necessary. Subsidies can come from government (not my preference) or real estate develops (like Huntington and the red cars).
Of course, this raises the important question: why bother? In a world of limitless and cheap resources such as post-WWII America, I wouldn’t. However, oil, land, and the environment’s capacity to absorb pollution are all running thin. Within a generation or two we will have to return to more dense, 19th century-style (aka pre-car) cities.
May 13th, 2008 at 2:15 am
Yeah, I used to ride the long bus from CalPoly to El Monte then wait fro an hour for the bus to Arcadia.
May 13th, 2008 at 6:43 am
You point out a lot of accuracy’s slackfarmer, except density is close to max here as it is. Our infrastructure is aging for basics like electricity. The long term drought out west is slowing reducing hydroelectric capacity (could be nil at Hoover in 5-7 years if it keeps dropping the way it has been).
The most crucial resource for us is water. I have seen several studies that if population stays steady the loss of water from the Colorado river and the Delta is going to be such we can’t meet out needs. Even with conservation, move to desert landscaping like Phx and LV its still going to be a stretch.
Our best option is put together transit the works and relieves our immediation problems then start layering density when the other infrastructure is in place to support.
May 13th, 2008 at 8:11 am
The biggest supporters of bus and light rail expansion in Southern Calirornia are people that don’t use it.
Frazgo is absolutely correct.
Our best option is put together transit the works and relieves our immediation problems then start layering density when the other infrastructure is in place to support.
Transit planners today have either: 1) not studied the history of transit growth vs. population growth in US cities; or 2) they are trying to justify their existence. Actually, it is probably both.
May 13th, 2008 at 9:49 am
Pasadena people keep saying they want to expand the ARTS bus but do nothing about it.
It should run later.