To Live and Drive in L.A.
by Keaton Gray
December 10, 2009
Few scenes are as quintessentially Los Angeles as the miles-long, crunching gridlock of Angelenos' morning commute.
Despite its reputation as the freeway capital of the country, Los Angeles in fact ranks last among the 36 largest metro areas in number of freeway lanes per capita according to the Federal Highway Administration. Pair that with another stereotype of the City of Angels -- that it's one of the world's major car capitals -- and the recipe for perpetual pileups is complete.
Los Angeles ranks second only to New York in worst-congested cities in the United States, but doesn't show the complete dearth of public transportation it is sometimes stuck representing by comparison. In fact, Los Angeles' expansive rail and bus system is one of the most impressive in the country, and by a measure of mass-transit miles traveled in relation to all miles traveled, Los Angeles ranks 11th among the 50 largest cities in the United States.
"It can be a little hectic, congested. But you would expect that living in Los Angeles." -Tommy Garner Jr.
Tommy Garner Jr. is a juvenile parole counselor who has lived in Los Angeles since he was a young kid. He is one of the 25 percent of mass-transit riders in Los Angeles who own a car, but choose to travel by bus or rail anyway. "What you have to understand is, most people they commute because it's easier. You don't have to have insurance, you don't have to worry about paying to park," he said. Garner learned the paying-to-park lesson the hard way, he said, when his car was towed after he failed to move it in time to avoid a ticket. The result was about $300 between an impound fee and a parking ticket. "Yeah, that was a pricey lesson," he recalled.
Public transportation in Los Angeles is largely composed of three options: buses, rapid transit buses -- which only stop at selected major streets in order to cut time off routes -- and rail, most of which is above ground. The gold line rail, which runs from East Los Angeles, through Downtown, and on to Pasadena, recently saw a nearly $9-billion expansion project, which opened Nov. 15. Although the new, asthetically-constructed stops opened to round approval from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and local politicians who supported the expansion, ridership in the first few weeks has remained relatively low when compared to the rest of the system.
Free Johnson is a Compton native who says he often rides the buses and rails of the city with ease. "The whole Los Angeles area is a little congested," Johnson said. "It's getting better now that they've got the new rail system put in, though." If Johnson seems somewhat forgiving of the traffic situation in Los Angeles, others were harsher. To put it in a word, Noelle Saracino said, "terrible. When I was in New York, I loved taking the subway," she said. "If they're planning anything to resolve the issue of traffic here, they need a metro or a subway that's more accessible and with more stops."
Traffic? "Terrible," says Noelle Saracino.
Terry Bradford arrived in Los Angeles nine years ago from Detroit. The AAA employee frequently rides the bus because of traffic conditions, he said. "Traffic is terrible. Just terrible. It's a gridlock every day on the freeway," he said. "I would rather ride public transportation out here than drive. Because, No. 1, I don't have the responsibility of being behind the wheel. And No. 2, because it seems to me to be a little faster."
While the general consensus around the city is that residents would like more public transportation options, those who do frequent the buses are typically pleased with their experience. In a recent MTA-conducted survey, 85 percent of the 15,000 riders polled said they were satisfied with the service, up from 83 percent a year ago. "I really like taking the bus; it's my personal time," Saracino said. "I just have 20 minutes to myself -- every day."