4 ms·

LA has more extensive public transit than either sf or portland. you can get around (to basically all of the tourist destinations) just fine by train, bus (gasp

LA has more extensive public transit than either sf or portland. you can get around (to basically all of the tourist destinations) just fine by train, bus (gasp!), scooters and bikes, with the occasional lyft to fill the gaps.

colinmhayes 5y ago
This just isn't true in a practical sense. LA is far too sprawling to effectively use the train without everything taking an hour longer than driving.
- asdff 5y ago
  The train is actually the one form of transit that usually beats driving, at least the trains that are grade separated (red and purple). There is no faster way to get between downtown LA and hollywood than the redline for most of the day. The expo line is pretty slow since a lot of it runs at grade, but even then it can beat a day with terrible traffic on the 10 going into santa monica.
  - wcarron 5y ago
    Agreed. Over the past decade I've commuted by some combination of all of LA's train lines, and the orange line, too. Red and purple and the best. Although purple's lack of distance degrades the value. Green, yellow, and expo are decent, but Yellow running at-grade degrades the utility somewhat, as for the expo line, as you said. The Green line didn't freaking connect to LAX, completely negating it's potential utility. Blue line and orange line are by far the worst, being entirely at street level and interrupted constantly with cross traffic. Honestly, what really needs to happen is: 1) Purple line completes intended extension. 2) Submerge the blue line and install new station for connection w/ green. 3) The orange line needs to be submerged and absorbed by the red 4) New rail line from the I-5 that follows the 405 S. It would connect with the expo, LAX/green lines, and terminate with the blue line in LB. The red line would connect/intersect with it slightly north of the 101. Already, those are pipe-dreams due to... well, everything about building public infrastructure. But LA does have the bones for some decent public transit, even if they'll never really invest in it.
28567558 5y ago
God bless you public transport boosters but the idea of stringing together 3-4 different types of transportation to get around doesn’t seem like a very relaxing vacation to me. Renting a car is just so much easier…
- AnimalMuppet 5y ago
  As a visitor, driving in LA isn't exactly relaxing either...
lastofthemojito 5y ago
Maybe it's gotten better? I did a summer at UCLA a bunch of years back and I remember it took me about 2 hours to get from LAX to UCLA via bus (and the bus dropped me on the far side of campus from where I wanted to be). At the end of the summer I knew someone with a car so I was able to get a ride from the dorm to LAX, door-to-door in something like 20 minutes. I was shocked, I had no idea the airport was that close by. Over the summer I used the bus to get around and it worked well for some destinations (I spent a lot of time in Santa Monica because that was easy) but there were others that just seemed too much of a pain (I wanted to see what Malibu was about but never did). Now as an adult who can afford a rental car I don't think I would consider going car-free for a trip to LA, unless the trip had a narrow focus (e.g. convention at convention center all week).
- asdff 5y ago
  The only useful way to get to the airport via transit in LA is to take the flyaway bus. They used to have a line servicing UCLA directly before the pandemic but they've since cut most of the routes after the pandemic.
- clairity 5y ago
  as @asdff noted, the point-to-point flyaway bus to ucla was a great, cheaper alternative, but limited service really hampers its utility. it's no consolation to you, but ucla will be connected to the purple (D) line in a couple years, which will make getting around LA from ucla much easier by public transit. but even more frustrating was the decision not to extend the green (C) line train directly into LAX (due to lobbying by taxi interests and others). rather than even the flyaway, we should have a train line directly from LAX into downtown, a key regional business travel destination. there even was a historical train right-of-way for much (all?) of that route, but it's since been sold and parceled out.
- secabeen 5y ago
  LA has a very extensive system, it's just slow.

colinmhayes 5y ago

This just isn't true in a practical sense. LA is far too sprawling to effectively use the train without everything taking an hour longer than driving.

asdff 5y ago
The train is actually the one form of transit that usually beats driving, at least the trains that are grade separated (red and purple). There is no faster way to get between downtown LA and hollywood than the redline for most of the day. The expo line is pretty slow since a lot of it runs at grade, but even then it can beat a day with terrible traffic on the 10 going into santa monica.
- wcarron 5y ago
  Agreed. Over the past decade I've commuted by some combination of all of LA's train lines, and the orange line, too. Red and purple and the best. Although purple's lack of distance degrades the value. Green, yellow, and expo are decent, but Yellow running at-grade degrades the utility somewhat, as for the expo line, as you said. The Green line didn't freaking connect to LAX, completely negating it's potential utility. Blue line and orange line are by far the worst, being entirely at street level and interrupted constantly with cross traffic. Honestly, what really needs to happen is: 1) Purple line completes intended extension. 2) Submerge the blue line and install new station for connection w/ green. 3) The orange line needs to be submerged and absorbed by the red 4) New rail line from the I-5 that follows the 405 S. It would connect with the expo, LAX/green lines, and terminate with the blue line in LB. The red line would connect/intersect with it slightly north of the 101. Already, those are pipe-dreams due to... well, everything about building public infrastructure. But LA does have the bones for some decent public transit, even if they'll never really invest in it.

28567558 5y ago

God bless you public transport boosters but the idea of stringing together 3-4 different types of transportation to get around doesn’t seem like a very relaxing vacation to me. Renting a car is just so much easier…

AnimalMuppet 5y ago
As a visitor, driving in LA isn't exactly relaxing either...

lastofthemojito 5y ago

Maybe it's gotten better? I did a summer at UCLA a bunch of years back and I remember it took me about 2 hours to get from LAX to UCLA via bus (and the bus dropped me on the far side of campus from where I wanted to be). At the end of the summer I knew someone with a car so I was able to get a ride from the dorm to LAX, door-to-door in something like 20 minutes. I was shocked, I had no idea the airport was that close by. Over the summer I used the bus to get around and it worked well for some destinations (I spent a lot of time in Santa Monica because that was easy) but there were others that just seemed too much of a pain (I wanted to see what Malibu was about but never did). Now as an adult who can afford a rental car I don't think I would consider going car-free for a trip to LA, unless the trip had a narrow focus (e.g. convention at convention center all week).

asdff 5y ago
The only useful way to get to the airport via transit in LA is to take the flyaway bus. They used to have a line servicing UCLA directly before the pandemic but they've since cut most of the routes after the pandemic.
clairity 5y ago
as @asdff noted, the point-to-point flyaway bus to ucla was a great, cheaper alternative, but limited service really hampers its utility. it's no consolation to you, but ucla will be connected to the purple (D) line in a couple years, which will make getting around LA from ucla much easier by public transit. but even more frustrating was the decision not to extend the green (C) line train directly into LAX (due to lobbying by taxi interests and others). rather than even the flyaway, we should have a train line directly from LAX into downtown, a key regional business travel destination. there even was a historical train right-of-way for much (all?) of that route, but it's since been sold and parceled out.
secabeen 5y ago
LA has a very extensive system, it's just slow.