It just makes sense.

We’re only about two-hundred feet from Tommy Fleming’s front door, located on a side street off Western Ave., before we see the first of about five homeless tents in our two block walk to Hollywood/Western Station. We are on our way to Tommy’s job as a video editor at the NBC/Universal lot.

Crossing Western Avenue, Tommy says, “When I moved to this neighborhood, I moved all my stuff in and…when I was smoking a cigarette this guy asked me for a cigarette and I said, ‘no.’ The guy punched me in the jaw, and just kept walking,” Tommy is laughing while saying it, reassuring me “…that never happened again. I’ve never really felt unsafe since.” He acknowledges that homelessness has definitely increased in the two years since he has moved there, but adds that “for the most part they’re respectful and I don’t have any issues with it, but it’s just kind of sad.”

This sense of hopelessness around homelessness in Los Angeles is something almost any Angeleno can relate to. Particularly when using the transit system, it tends to seem the epidemic of homelessness is only increasing. Tommy, like a lot of residents who take mass transit, seems to do his best to acknowledge the situation while still moving through his day. It’s a dilemma a lot of people in the city face. The struggle between how much time and effort to give an issue that feels so gigantic and beyond them and, while uncommon in Tommy and my experience, potentially dangerous when factoring in interactions with those facing mental instability or drug usage. It’s important to note that Tommy was hit by a random man, who wasn’t necessarily homeless, but this fear of safety is real for a lot of riders, and whether it is substantiated or inflated by some, it is certainly true that until the city finds a way to make the majority of Angelenos feel safe while taking transit, there won’t be the amount of ridership Metro hopes to obtain.

We just miss the northbound Red Line train so, while waiting ten minutes for the next one, I ask Tommy if he has to take public transit to work or whether driving is an option. “There’s parking at work and at my house, but I was in a pretty bad car accident around three or four years ago…totaled my car…the guy was drunk and didn’t have any insurance. It was a total loss on my part, and left me slightly traumatized. I just thought after that I didn’t want to deal with driving for a while, and…yeah I just didn’t go back. I’ll drive still if someone needs me to, but my general stress level is lower when I’m not driving.” Unlike when Tommy was smiling and telling about his cigarette altercation, this experience is being relayed to me in much more serious tone. Bad things can happen on transit or in a private vehicle, unfortunately bad luck is part of living in a city of millions, however the close access of the Red Line allows Tommy to pick his poison, and for him that includes not being behind the wheel.

While waiting he adds, “My boss takes the Metro to work from Studio City, but I would say most people will ask me ‘Do you take the Metro?”’and when I say, ‘yeah,’ they respond, ‘“WOW!”’ Which I think Is ridiculous because it would be such a hassle to drive in comparison to this.” As he finishes the thought the train is arriving, on time.

We get on and I ask him if it bothers him that while the Red Line has cell service from Union Station to Sunset/Vermont, cell service is not yet available from Hollywood/Western onward, “Truthfully I don’t mind it that much, I’m on my phone so much the rest of the day. There is an argument that it’s good for safety, but I just bring a book or download the songs I want to listen to.” Also the whole train ride lasts nine minutes so there isn’t too much time to account for.

While getting off the train, Tommy mentions how he wished Metro was better at advertising it’s convenience, but he finds, and I agree, that it can sometimes be a hard system to figure out how to use. So much of what we feel about a mode of transportation is which aspect we focus on. By making the experience easier to understand, it could allow people to remember the convenience of a nine minute train ride, rather than the headache-inducing ten minutes of finding out which train is going where. Yet, Tommy says, that pales in comparison to the one thing he hates most about driving: parking. “A drive that only takes six minutes turns into fifteen minutes spent parking!” he says, which in Los Angeles can often be an optimistic prediction if one is street-parking or in one of those ten floor parking garages.

Instead, we exit the station with a large number of tourists on their way to Universal Studios. They take the pedestrian bridge to the park, and Tommy and I cross the street to the studio entrance where I leave him. A twenty-eight minute commute, and that includes missing the train and waiting ten minutes. It just makes sense.

Learning to find community.

“It was absolutely intentional. I have always been really passionate about community; not just taking in your neighborhood by osmosis, but really taking in the faces and names of your neighbors”

It's 6:50 in the morning and Taylor Slavens, or Mr. Slavens as he is known at work, is getting ready in his Los Feliz apartment, in a neighborhood where he has lived in or adjacent to for the last five years. While living here he attended USC to undertake a Master's in Education, after which he quickly found a position teaching English and 'Intro to Theatre' at John Marshall High School, located only 1.7 miles away from Taylor’s apartment. Having a commute of just under two miles is a dream that most Angelenos can only envy but Taylor was determined to live close to where he ended up teaching saying, "It was absolutely intentional. I have always been really passionate about community; not just taking in your neighborhood by osmosis, but really taking in the faces and names of your neighbors...I wanted to be a part of the kid's lives that walk by me every day on the streets." 

While walking through the neighborhood I asked Taylor how he travels the 1.7 miles each day, "I drive my Mini Cooper; it takes about thirteen minutes." A choice that is made even easier by the fact that the school provides free parking for the staff. I understand Taylor’s choice: driving is convenient, easy, and cheap. Also, his school, which is located on the border of Los Feliz and Silverlake, is not close to any obvious rail or bus routes. Yet, as I hear what Taylor says about the importance of interacting with his neighbors I see his commute as one of his best opportunities to find out what, and who, truly make up Los Feliz. There are a couple options to get to work, but Citymapper informs me of the most convenient: a bus that runs during rush-hour between Hollywood and Silverlake. The 175 bus picks us up about one block from Taylor’s apartment and drops us off at the front of Marshall high in about twenty-six minutes.

Map of Bus 175 provided by Citymapper

As we make our way to the stop, across the street from the infamous, yet-to-be-completed Target on Sunset and Western and I ask Taylor how most of his students get to school, "most of them take public transit; a good number of them get picked up by their parents; a very small number drive because there is no parking for them...a lot of them don't think twice about using Metro" a statement which he says he can't apply to much of his friend group adding, "most think of it as occasionally helpful but largely kind of inopportune." As we walk up to the station I see his assessment as fairly accurate at least on this occasion. There are none of the hip Coachella outfits or manicured beards that Los Feliz and Silverlake have become so synonymous with as of late, but there are about four people at the stop, one of whom is wearing John Marshall gear.

“I remember I was with a friend using the Redline to get downtown ten years ago, I remember thinking this is great but limited in its scope...at least the rails. I’ve been on a bus one other time, I’ve always wanted to utilize it, but I’m always nervous or afraid of doing transfers and getting lost. I don’t know what I’m doing.”

As we board the bus, Taylor talks about his own experience with Metro, "I remember I was with a friend using the Red line to get downtown ten years ago, I remember thinking this is great but limited in its scope...at least the rails. I've been on a bus one other time, I've always wanted to utilize it, but I'm always nervous or afraid of doing transfers and getting lost. I don't know what I'm doing." After stopping a few times, the number people on the bus goes from about seven to forty fairly quickly and the vast majority are students. Taylor laughs saying, "I'm already obsessed with it...riding Metro creates space for connection and learning that a thirteen-minute drive doesn't offer. What is this twenty-six minutes? So what - am I losing fourteen minutes? I get up at five every morning, it's not that different."

“I’m already obsessed with it...riding Metro creates space for connection and learning that a thirteen-minute drive doesn’t offer. What is this twenty-six minutes? So what am I losing fourteen minutes? I get up at five every morning, it’s not that different.”

Taylor has learned a lot about his community from teaching in his neighborhood.  We reminisce over our college years, going to cafes and bars in the area, but we can't recall many times where we saw teenagers in the neighborhood. "Marshall has challenged me to really understand the culture that I can name but can't really speak about at length. It has shown me a personal side of what is going on in Los Feliz with gentrification. My students, a lot of them, might not have the money to go to the restaurants my friends enjoy...it is easy to be nearsighted and myopic to think 'my experience of my neighborhood is the only experience of my neighborhood,' and it takes effort to see the reality of what your neighborhood actually is."

“My students, a lot of them, might not have the money to go to the restaurants my friends enjoy...it is easy to be nearsighted and myopic to think ‘my experience of my neighborhood is the only experience of my neighborhood,’ and it takes effort to see the reality of what your neighborhood actually is.”

The biggest thing I notice on this bus ride is that I'm seeing a Los Feliz I've never seen before outside of a taqueria or chance encounter with a stranger. Unlike Downtown or Koreatown, where density makes old residents interact with new, side by side, in this part of town it is easy to avoid anyone that isn't in a person's daily sphere. Taylor talks about the similarities between transit and his job, "Where else other than a bus or a school, or maybe jury duty, are you forced to interact with all the different people in your neighborhood?" We can't rely solely on coffee shops, or any other private enterprise to integrate neighbors when many in the community cannot afford them. That doesn't mean the private sector isn't adding great and valid institutions but they cannot be responsible for bridging the divide. Unfortunately, Taylor doesn't see many of his friends using buses as a valid option, mostly due to their perception, "people see rail and subways as being more expedient and efficient, but a bus can also be really efficient." 

By the time we get to Taylor’s school 75% of the bus unloads directly in front of John Marshall. Whether by choice or simply being too young to drive, Metro is certainly a working option for these kids whereas Taylor didn't even know this route existed. I can't blame him. It is hard to learn the schedules and routes, particularly for buses that don't run all day like the 175, when they aren't advertised the same way rail lines are. One has to use a map like Citymapper or Google Maps to find it or scour the Metro page for a possible route. People want easy and convenient options. There are many, like Taylor, who are actively seeking out ways to engage with their community, and we shouldn't make it harder for them to engage rather than travel solo. Taylor might not switch to Metro full time, but at least now he is aware of how many of his students are getting to school. That dialogue, that shared experience, is just one more way to build a community that didn't exist before.

How we're Getting There.

It's 7am, and I'm in the middle of two construction sites and a lot of graffiti waiting to get on a Metro Bike with Tiffany Chao and Thomas Szelazek. Unlike the many people who feel helpless yelling, "why would someone build this!", when they are stuck in traffic on a poorly designed street or lost because of a confusing transit system; these two are the people who usually know why or how it happened. Thomas and Tiffany are what they call transportation consultants in the world of urban planning. They make a living studying and improving this city, spending days in meetings, at computers, and on location throughout the city, and state, trying to figure out how to improve mobility for the masses and untangle the knots built by previous generations. As we begin our trip from the Downtown Arts District to their office in Old Town Pasadena they have a lot to say about how we are getting there.

“I didn’t need it. I was paying between $600 - $700 a month with insurance, gas and parking.”

One of the many construction sites in the ever-expanding Arts District. 

Prior to relocating to the Arts District, both Tiffany and Thomas were of the many Angelenos who lived by the seat of their cars. For sixteen years, Tiffany lived in LA with her car on the Westside, while Thomas resided near USC before the Expo Line or immediate ride share. Five years ago the couple moved themselves to the Arts District near 7th and Santa Fe – an area known for it's coffee shops and restaurants and the warehouses that house them. This move was their first big attempt to make for a life less dictated by traffic. Their next step was getting down to one car, a goal they accomplished two years ago when Tiffany sold her car saying, "I didn't need it. I was paying between $600 - $700 a month with insurance, gas and parking." Now, with a single car they are commuting to work together which takes about thirty-three minutes door to door.

To unlock a MetroBike you register your tap card and then simply place it on the reader to unlock the bike.

When possible, they would try mass transit, but due to the strenuous twenty-eight minute walk to the Gold Line at the Little Tokyo/Arts District Station, the commute didn't feel totally worth it. Fortunately, just over a year ago that trip was condensed with the introduction of Metro's new bikeshare system, Metro Bike, which added a bike station within three blocks of their home. At $20 a month, unlimited 30 minute rides, it is best designed for frequent riders, casual rides are $3.50 for 30 minutes or $1.75 for 30 minutes with a yearly payment of $40. Despite a semi-confusing price structure, this gave Thomas and Tiffany more mobility. That mobility made for a new goal: commuting to work via Metro once a week. Now at 63 minutes on average, the commute is still longer, but it is doable.

Tiffany can use the front pouch for her bag.

“...the light, which is controlled by circular sensors that detect cars and didn’t turn green for us twice, therefore adding a two minute delay. ”

As we started biking from one end of the Arts District to the other it really hits me how bikeshare has changed this neighborhood. There are few bus routes and none that run north-south and the low-rise steel and concrete buildings coupled with few trees offering shade make for an unfriendly pedestrian experience on a hot day. The sidewalk system has yet to be completed at many key streets which is becoming an increasing problem due to a housing and retail boom. Sometimes sidewalks disappear or streets lack easy pedestrian crossings. The Metro Bikes allowed us to move through the neighborhood more easily. The biggest hold up was at 4th and Molino because of sensors that didn't read us at the light, which is controlled by circular sensors that detect cars and didn't turn green for us twice, therefore adding a two minute delay. 

The circle sensors could not tell we needed a green light. 

Stopped at this infuriatingly long light, I ask Thomas and Tiffany what they think about the changes. They agree Metro Bike's have increased their mobility but also state that the Arts District has a long way to go to be a neighborhood easily accessed by transit. Tiffany says, "It's about making it easy...proper sidewalks, bike lanes or two main bike routes, there are a lot of curves that make it hard for a driver to see a pedestrian. I often see, including myself, people running across Santa Fe trying to avoid getting hit by one of the five trucks barreling down. People want to walk and bike but the city doesn't always make it easy for them to do it."

Plan for Pedestrian Improvements in the Arts District

Luckily, the city has recently awarded more than fourteen million dollars to improve pedestrian connections and it can not come soon enough. There are at least twenty retail and pedestrian development projects in the pipeline to date. They acknowledge there may be pushback with changes to street design, Tiffany adds "There's a perception all these planners want people to stop driving. No, we don't want you to stop driving, but maybe you can do something different once a week. There is a woman who was quoted in LA Times recently, she was complaining she couldn't drive from her home at Venice pier to Abbot Kinney because of tourism, but maybe she could have walked."

One or the many missing links for pedestrians in the Arts District. The sidewalk disappears going south on Santa Fe with no crossing to Mateo in sight.

Exactly 10 minutes later we park our Metro Bikes outside of Angel City Brewery, and are walking a block toward the Gold Line to Pasadena. Thomas talks about how critical it is to give people these links to the transit system and that we need far more linkages to give people a reliable way to access the system. Tiffany agreed but added, "it's certainly getting better with all the investment going in, but all these cities in LA county are still providing parking...I think we can grow this system as much as we want, I don't see it getting to it's full potential until we address parking policy." She cites the irony of when city officials and transit planners arrive to a Metro meeting via private vehicles to discuss how to improve the system.

Little Tokyo/Arts District Station

“...I think we can grow this system as much as we want, I don’t see it getting to it’s full potential until we address parking policy.”

Given they both have free parking at work, I ask them why they are experimenting with transit when driving is quicker. Tiffany admits that despite the official status of the car being quicker to work, more variables exist when considering public transit. She often has more to do than just go from home to work and back, and that's when public transit really comes in hand. Quite often she has meetings in the heart of downtown, where parking can be a nightmare, but the gold line is a straight shot making it easier to stop in for a meeting. She also says, "coupled with the bike ride, it gets her moving after sitting at a computer all day. It comes down to an improved quality of life for her." She remarks how it compares to her life on the Westside, "It greatly improved my quality of life. It felt like the equivalent of a $20,000 raise in terms of how my mood changed, and then after getting rid of my car I feel, well 99% of the time, I feel free." She talked about how isolated she felt when her life was controlled by a car. She didn't have exposure to different cultural centers and populations, even finding her new lifestyle has lead to an increase in exposure to different types of food; the Westside was a bubble for her. Thomas adds, "I don't think (public transit) disturbs anything. If anything it makes me walk more and be more active. Maybe I get to work a few minutes later, but heres the thing about people driving alone, I think they real overemphasize the convenience of it." They both joke how easily we forget that when people drive so they can stop and get a coffee on the way to work, often the time spent circling for parking negates the time saved by driving. 

On our way to Pasadena.

“...but it’s really about control. If you get into a delay on Metro you will blame Metro, but if you hit traffic you still feel in control”

Thomas and Tiffany don't always have the ability to take public transit, but their rate of use increases as connections become easier and Thomas adds that it isn't just the cities' responsibility to create infrastructure. "We actually survey a lot of companies and the core reasons we get for people not using shared transit is convenience and reliability, but it's really about control. If you get into a delay on Metro you will blame Metro, but if you hit traffic you still feel in control," Thomas says. As transportation consultants they cite the need for companies to embrace more options for their employees to take transit and provide less parking, such as with the B-Tap program at Ace Hotel I discussed last week. 

Passing through City Hall in Pasadena.

Thirty-three minutes later we get off at Memorial Station in Old Town Pasadena, and take the final ten minute walk to the office. As we walk through City Hall we pass more Metro Bike stations as the program has now expanded to Pasadena. Thomas remarks, "I hate driving. There is a level of arrogance and security that I get from driving in my car. I think people like that comfort. If you close your windows you are in a literal bubble."

It speaks to some of the irony of Californian environmentalism. We have managed to become an extremely environmentally and socially conscious state that simultaneously embrace a symbol of both environmental abuses and social seclusion. The car allows us to forget we are a society. Something they take transit to remember. "I want to be around my fellow Angeleno," Tiffany says. We all wish to change society on a macro level but are of often unwilling to integrate our lives into that change when it comes to transportation. An example of our inability to modify behavior is occurring at California's beloved national park Yosemite. A recent explosion in popularity has driven up traffic to more than five million vehicles a year. Proposals to have visitors shuttle in to the fairly compact walkable heart of Yosemite, which has been successful in nearby states with National Parks, have been shot down due to lack of interest. Our need for an easy experience can run the risk of destroying what we are trying to experience if we aren't careful. 

Pasadena City Hall.

As we walk up to their office I ask them how they are getting home. Tiffany smiles and says, "we're gonna take the train home and go eat in Little Tokyo because we don't have to drive. If we were driving I'd say lets just go home, I don't want to have to deal with and pay for parking.

Transit instructions provided by Citymapper

Trying Something New.

It's 8am on Friday morning and I meet Izzy Schloss, a friend from college, who agrees to my request of joining her on her commute to work. With one condition: we take public transit. She agrees, with slight hesitation but an open mind, and I plot our voyage from Vermont in Los Feliz to Old Town Pasadena. 

Izzy's starting point in Los Feliz

Living on the southern part of Los Feliz near Vermont & Hollywood, Izzy has two options to get to work. There is the Red line that she can ride to Union Station and then transfer to the Gold line to Pasadena, walking included it takes about 1 hour. This is the obvious route. The one Google Maps would often advise, however there is an alternative. Metro's often criticized "Rapid Buses" (the red busses) were introduced in 2000 as a way to speed up bus travel. They make limited stops more akin to a subway or light rail. However, most common maps of metro don't feature them and the bus stops don't exactly advertise any particular significance so they are often overlooked, even by avid transit users. 

We discovered this route worked well only because of my favorite transit app, CityMapper. Its interface makes it almost seem like Waze for mass transit. It is quick and efficient, and most importantly uses more logical connections then other interfaces like Google Maps. For Izzy, who wished to avoid cumbersome connections and being underground, the 780 was a great option. 

Using the Citymapper App

The 780 would get us to where we needed to go for $1.75 in about 45 minutes. About 50% longer then her average car trip that takes "20-30 minutes most days depending on traffic." Which proved Izzy right when asked to comment on mass transit in LA saying "it's terrible...not on time, and usually takes at least twice as long to get anywhere then it would in your car." I couldn't refute the time argument and there is a lot of room for improvement, however, I found it interesting that we usually talk about commutes from only a single angle: time. Izzy went so far as to say, "its about efficiency. I want to get from my home to work as fast as possible, I'm not saying that it's right, but if anything that means I get to spend more time at home, and if I get really illegal, I can do it in 15 minutes."

CityMapper

We begin snaking through Atwater Village and Glendale, and I ask Izzy if she has had positive experiences with mass transit. She talked about a recent summer spent in Spain being an Au Pair where a good bike network and bus system allowed her to get everywhere she needed to go. What struck me the most was that, while Izzy loved the efficiency of the system, what she really loved was how it taught her about her surroundings and helped her learn Spanish by listening to others. One could argue that we are allowed to be more carefree about time on vacation but being an Au Pair and taking Spanish lessons Izzy still had places to be and speed was a factor. Many of us love to utilize the social benefits of mass transit when we are in cities that have systems that are perceived as efficient, but ignore the benefits in our own cities. LA is a perfect example. Izzy doesn't use Metro because she perceives it as being inefficient but the irony is the freeway system in LA, particularly during rush hour is far from efficient with traffic jams and accidents effecting your arrival time (add to that a million other factors.) So if time wasn't the main issue, maybe something else was. 

The 780 Rapid Bus in Los Feliz, and the Local 181 behind it

As I asked Izzy what was the quality of time spent on her commute like she said she enjoyed "time to herself...listening to NPR.." I definitely understand the desire for alone time and it makes a lot of sense, but the funny thing was when asked what her least favorite aspect of her commute she responded, "well I don't like the terrible traffic sometimes...and it's funny I usually keep my windows down because I don't like the isolation. That separation to everyone around me." 

LA is the product of being a civic experiment in how far we could take the idea of privacy and private property. The car has become an extension of our home and many often end up with a community solely consisting of those either in their home or work. In many parts of LA, you can find it difficult to run into people in parks, or on the street, or any other public space because they tend to not exist or are engineered as an after thought. This can be tempting for the individual, particularly those that adore privacy, but dangerous for a society. We isolate ourselves. If desired, we ignore problems of those with different lives then us whether it be racial or economic. For example, the massive homeless problem brewing in LA can easily be avoided if one just turns up their radio, rolls up the window, and takes the right route. 

780 stop in Old Town Pasadena

So, is there a way to have a city that looks out for one another and yet allows for the very healthy desire of a certain amount of privacy? That is a very large issue and not the sole responsibility of any one Angeleno who's just trying to get to work. The funny thing was, by the end of the trip as we were passing through Eagle Rock, she remarked that trip had been so easy. She enjoyed seeing the evolution of the city between Los Feliz and Pasadena. She enjoyed a coffee. She talked to a friend. She wanted to try it again, and next time bring a book. The ride turned out to only take 39 minutes (I tried it twice just to make sure.)

Not everyone has  the luxury of the door to door route that the 780 offers Izzy, for many of us transfers are required. Increased frequency is needed. Those are all valid and very real concerns. Yet, the thing that I find most fascinating is that Izzy had no knowledge of this very convenient route prior to our investigation. There are so many transit routes in this city of 4 million that many have little to no knowledge of. Metro can do a far better job of advertising our system, but if you are annoyed by traffic and feeling isolated, if you want more time to read or watch a show, or even just desire the ability to feel like you live in a city, I advise you to download Citymapper, or any other transit app, and discover your options. Or leave me a comment asking for a hand, I'd love to explore the city with you.  

Passing the historic Langham Hotel.