Except those who have no choice, that is. Often, all sorts of weird, unforeseen snafus arise when taking the bus in this metropolis.

I.e. the Metro Rapid Wilshire bus. On my way back from visiting Java City, a bus went by without stopping — which obviously angered a lot of people. None more so than a long, stringy-haired man with very wide, red-rimmed eyes, who stepped out in front of the next bus as it was coming to a stop. Then, when the wheelchair ramp didn’t close quickly enough for his taste, the guy tried to lift the ramp up himself, forcing it closed.

This got the bus driver riled up — She called for the police, which basically forced everyone off the bus.

The next bus came. I and a bunch of other people got on — including the guy that freaked out the first driver. All was fine, until a woman felt it her obligation to let the driver know about the guy. The driver stopped, which got everyone yelling at the woman. “You didn’t see what he did,” she said, to which people shouted back, “Yes, we did!”

Everyone else just wanted to get going, but the bus was stopped. This driver tried to keep anyone from getting off, but public will prevailed, and many of us did. I eneded up taking a non-rapid bus down 3rd…

So that was the MTA. But the Santa Monica Big Blue Bus too has its issues. Coming north on the #12 bus on Robertson, the driver decided to stop, turn off the engine, and let all the riders wait while he went into a liquor store to buy some Lays chips.

2 stops later, I got off, and called the BBB line. “Um, is this normal?” I asked. According to the rep, no. I gave her the bus and line number and the time I was on there, and she said she’d “see what’s going on.”

Nothing life-threatening, but I’d hate to rely on any of the bus systems to get to work. At least in NYC, when mass transit has issues or goes on strike, people know about it. Here, the bussing problems are somewhat surreal, and far far removed from the day to day activities of the vast majority of professional workers –

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