From now on, I’ll be spending a lot of time on Pico. The epiphany came yesterday when I took the Big Blue Bus to SMC for my second ever guitar class (By the way, I can now play not just one, but TWO chords). The “Super 7” Pico line was fast, clean, and hassle-free.
And then it hit me — Why not just find a place for everything I need — from drycleaning to bookshopping — on Pico? On the way to SMC, I passed the Westwood Pavilion (Body Shop, multiple bookstores), an eco-friendly drycleaner, and a Trader Joe’s.
LA’s pretty famous for its sucky public transportation. The city’s so spread out, and the subway system is a joke, so public transport diehards (and those who can’t afford cars) mostly rely on buses. Of course the bus system’s terribly complex — We have the MTA (the largest and most notoriously unreliable) for Los Angeles, the Big Blue Bus system for Santa Monica, the Culver City Bus system, and the DASH for the downtown area, to name the big ones.
All these lines overlap and intersect, charge different fares, and if you actually had to rely on them, you’d need a binder to keep all the schedules and bus route maps organized — and a lot of time waiting between bus transfers. I’d like to take the bus to USC, but that would mean taking 3 different buses and budgeting for an hour+ ride time for what is now a 15 minute car ride.
So I can’t get rid of my car yet, but by getting to know just this one bus line, I think I can pretty much avoid driving to run my errands. It’s 75 cents a ride, so maybe I’ll save some gas money too, not to mention parking fees. And the trip may take a little longer, but I won’t have to spend 15 minutes looking for parking everywhere I go…
Their marketing’s cute too. BBB has the Little Blue Card — which basically works like the MetroPass in NYC, except the Lil Blue Card’s a lot harder to find. I think I’m gonna have to send for mine in the mail. Until it arrives, I’ll be the girl with the guitar on the corner of La Cienega and Pico on Mon and Wed mornings, jingling change.
Big Blue Bus, 1660 7th Street, Santa Monica, CA. 310 451-5444.
Update, 1/2/06: Of course, it’s tough to take the bus everywhere. Bus riding in LA’s full of snafus — It’ll take a critical mass to change that.
Have I mentioned that your blog is teh shiny? Seriously, you are teaching me how to live in my city in all new ways.
I’ve been exploring a bit on my side of town.
The #6 Culver City line passes the following: Trader Joes, SaveOn, Rite Aid, the party store, lets you off at Venice, Washington and all major E-W cross streets to catch other bus lines, it passes a Petco, goes near a Target and a Ross, to Fox Hills Mall and The Bridge. Transfer at PIco onto the #7, you get to SMC
#1 Washington line takes you to the beach, past a ton of shopping, up to Trader Joes and downtown Culver City, the farmers market there…
We will not be using our car very much for the next few months. About the only thing I canNOT use the bus for is to get Tiki to the dog park down in Venice.
Comment by Will Pillage For Yarn — September 2, 2005 @ 5:18 pm
Yey! Maybe I’ll see you on the #6 line. My shrink’s office is on Sepulveda — I could switch from the Super 7 to the 6!
But could the transfers be any more complicated? A sampling of what I’ll need to remember from the Culver City bus site:
We accept MTA tokens but not MTA bus passes. Passengers must pay additional to receive an Inter-Agency Transfer. We DO NOT accept Santa Monica’s Big Blue Bus tokens. When transferring to MTA, Santa Monica’s Big Blue Bus, Torrance Transit or LADOT, you must purchase an Inter-Agency transfer. Inter-Agency transfers are not good for transferring from one Culver CityBus to another.
Geez. Well, one line at a time :)
Comment by Siel — September 2, 2005 @ 9:12 pm
you dont have to wait for one in the mail you can get one in person
at the following locations
convenient locations:
Purchase Locations
Big Blue Bus Customer Service Office
(Weekdays only, 8AM - 5PM)
310-451-5444
1660 7th Street, Santa Monica, CA 90401
Santa Monica Libraries
Main Library
6th & Santa Monica
Fairview Branch
2101 Ocean Park
Montana Branch
17th & Montana
Ocean Park Branch
2601 Main Street
Santa Monica College Bookstore
1815 Pearl
Also Available at:
Community Check Cashing
Lincoln & Rose, Venice
UCLA Central Ticket Office On Campus
also in addition your little blue card is also vaild on other lines
(like Culver city, Montebello, Norwalk, Foothill transit
as well as Santa Monica Big Blue.
Comment by Mark Panitz — October 20, 2005 @ 6:04 pm
May I add, I have a dream….
The Big BLue Bus will one day have a system where you can log on to their website, use paypal, a credit card or some other such thing, pay for a blue bus card, print it out on a piece of paper, or it will be downloaded to a smart card, and then you got yourself set for Big BLue Bus traveling.
BTW, a little trivia.. The famous rock band, “The Doors” singer, Jim Morrison wrote a song about riding the Big Blue Bus #10 line. It’s called “The End” Listen to him sing about riding the Blue Bus West on the 7 mile snake (AKA the 10 freeway from Downtown to Los Angeles to Santa Monica/Venice) in the audio file
Michael
Cycle Santa Monica!
Comment by Cycle Santa Monica! — November 2, 2005 @ 3:04 am
Yes — and one day, we’ll be able to use the blue bus downloaded smart card on all MTA buses. Tee hee!
I’d really love for this to happen — It just seems so far far away — Can you cyclers do anything about this?
And wow — I had no clue about that song by The Doors! It’s on my iPod, but I’ll listen to it in a whole new way now!
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