Taking the bus to school made me realize how badly we need dedicated bus lanes in LA.
Yes, we have a few here and there. In fact, stretches of Wilshire Blvd. — down which I took the Metro Rapid bus yesterday — does have a bus lane. However, that bus lane also doubles as a parking lane. And except during rush hours when parking there’s forbidden, those lanes are unusable, cuz people’re parked all alongside them.
So — The Rapid bus would’ve been quite rapid — if not for all the other cars on the road :P The trip — taking the Metro Rapid bus down Wilshire, then taking a regular Metro bus down Vermont, took me 1.5 hours one-way, including walking and waiting time — a half hour longer than my driving time.
3 hours roundtrip is a lil more than I can handle on a regular basis. However, I’m not giving up! Wad recommends taking the #10 express Big Blue Bus which’ll take me downtown in less than 15 mins. From there, I can take the Dash down to USC.
Wish me luck on my new route.
But back to the Metro Rapid bus — If we had dedicated bus lanes all the way down Wilshire, I think it’s quite certain that I’d make it to school as fast, if not faster, via bus than by car. How to make this happen…
Update, 10/12/06: My pseudo-2nd attempt was aborted, cuz I got to the bus stop too late :(
Siel,
Who knows if you’ll notice this comment, or if you’ve already figured it out. The 333 and 33 lines on Venice are much faster and ought to get you close to where you are going. Try throwing your bike on the front . . . this means you won’t have to transfer buses in order to reach USC from Venice and you get a little biking in as well. If you’re worried about it getting stolen lock your wheel to the frame – that makes it a pain to steal since they have to carry the bike away. All around you should be able to do your commute in about an hour with maybe 10min of biking on each side of the bus.
Or I could be full of it,
Alex T
Comment by Alex Thompson — October 17, 2006 @ 4:31 pm
Hey Alex! I’m actually a lil afraid to take my bike to campus — more than taking it on the bus — cuz so many bikes get stolen at USC. I do, however, have a friend who lives in Mar Vista who does exactly what you’re recommending! He takes the Venice bus down to like Vermont, the skateboards on to campus –
Comment by Siel — October 17, 2006 @ 6:21 pm