3 ms·

German travelers loved Los Angeles' Metro. Wait, what?

• bscphil 3y ago
  > On the buses, I met some chatty and friendly fellow travelers, and yes, I also encountered a few pretty messed-up riders, chatting gibberish and lost in their own distant worlds. I rode immaculately clean trains and buses and a few that looked and smelled scuzzy. Most rides were somewhere in between. > We’d been warned about violent crime, and as is true for big city transit systems everywhere, I have no doubt it’s a legitimate concern. But we encountered none, although on a late-night ride from downtown to Santa Monica, on a very clean but mostly empty E line train, there were some worrisome moments. > One passenger was clearly passed out, slouched over in his seat. Another shouted something unintelligible from time to time. Making such situations feel a little safer, there were often security guards or police at train stops and on buses; security cameras were ubiquitous. > Our most precarious moments came when we had to walk from buses or trains to our final destinations. It seems pedestrians are not something some Los Angeles drivers are accustomed to. I actually had to jump out of the way a few times as motorists got too close to sidewalks or bike lanes. > Even during rush hour, we found ourselves, surprisingly, in half-empty buses as we zipped down express bus lanes past long lines of bumper-to-bumper traffic. I had to wonder why, in the face of climate change, were so many drivers still in cars? Why, in a city where people think out of the box more than in other places, is there so much angst about public transportation? This sounds like a classic case of answering your own question, lol.