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why more people don't take the metro in LA baffles me!! the ONLY thing I miss about living in the SF valley was riding the Red Line from LA to the Mid-Wilshire district. I was able to read, sleep AND get to work in less than 1/2 the time it would've taken me by car, in wonderful LA traffic.

oops. I meant from NOHO to Mid-Wilshire.

this made me laugh! i grew up in orange county and i remember hearing about the metro and always laughing about it. no one i had ever know had seen it, much less ridden on it. southern california is the biggest car culture in the US, i think. why would people give up their beloved cars to ride public transportation?!

my friend was visiting the area last month and told me she rode the bus to get somewhere. i nearly died of laughter. public transportation was not cool when i was growing up. hopefully things change.

i live in sherman oaks, and the problem i have with riding the train is that i have to drive to north hollywood or the universal station to ride it. i'm sorry, but once i'm in my car, i'm taking my car. if the trains were more integrated throughout the city, i'd use them as much as possible.

but for work, i have to use my car. i live in the valley and work in santa monica, and there's no train through the sepulveda pass, which is a major bummer. the westside is train-less.

In my mind, the biggest problem with the LA Metro system is the lack of access to the subway for various "pockets" around the city, such as the west side. I'd take public transportation a lot more often if it didn't take me 30 minutes to get to a subway station (and if the buses weren't so smelly and crowded). For folks who live in Santa Monica, Westwood, Palms, Fairfax district, etc., public transportation in LA isn't very convenient.

This is interesting to me...I live in San Francisco without a car, and I moved here from New York. All in all, I haven't owned a car in over 10 years!

But now, I'm considering a move to LA...is it even possible to live there (and have an active, rich life) without a car? While I like thinking I'm keeping my carbon footprint low, to be honest I'd love to have a car....it's just such an expensive proposition when you've been without one for so long!

SO, I know this is a can of worms, but can you live in LA without a car???

One time I visited LA and only took public transit. It can be done, depending on where exactly you are and need to be but, yeah, it's still very much a car culture kind of place.

I lived just a few blocks from a gold line station a few years ago, and when I'd take that to/from Union station with luggage- man the looks I'd get rolling/walking down the street! It just made me sad that I was the oddball for using something that's convenient and the norm in so much of the world. Now if only we could also get some high-speed trains in the US...

I work for Metro, and lemme tell you, we want trains everywhere. But there are 3 major things that are holding back trains on the westside - money, the insanity of people who live 100 miles away from where they work and NIMBY opposition. Metro is a non profit and runs on a defecit. The only way that we can get money is raising the fares and asking for money from the government - both which never work as well as they're supposed to. I hate pple who knock Metro. There is need for improvement, but pple are friggen unrealistic if they think that they're gonna get from the SF valley to santa monica in 20 minutes on a train. Why work so far away. I work 6 miles away from my home by design. As for the NIMBYs, has anyone seen how east la has been torn apart? Luckily for Metro, ELA doesnt have much of a voice ($$$) to influence the Metro board to consider all the lives they've uprooted in building the eastside extension. The westside has considerably more clout when it comes to this - they don't want their neighboorhood torn apart, they dont want to poor who use the bus to have access to their neighborhoods. That is why there are no trains / crappy bus service on the Westside.

and noarch, you CAN live in LA without a car. I didn't start driving until I was 22 (i'm 24 now). I went to college in Long Beach - 36 miles from where I lived (dumb me). It was hard, but it's doable and some aspects are enjoyable (THE SLEEP!). You just need to be smart. Find a home central to all your needs, including close to your work. Add a 20 minute cushion to all travel time just to be safe. Get an Ipod or some books to pass the time. And don't be afraid of big bad Los Angeles, but seeing you hail from NY/SF, im sure you won't be as super lame as some of the people I've encountered taking the bus.

Yeah...I get public transit...I know how to work it into my life....I just don't know if I can do it in LA. I'll likely be working in Santa Monica, on the dreaded transitless westside! It would be great to live there too, but it's sooo expensive. Just trying to work it out in my head whether i can do it or not. Work/gym/home/groceries have all been on foot for the last 12 years...just wondering if that lifestyle can work in LA, especially if my job ends up being in Santa Monica as I expect.

Catching a Dodger game won't be such a hassle??? There isn't a train line anywhere near Dodger Stadium...enlighten please!

In 2002 I bought my So Pas house from the agency that is now the Gold Line. It was a closed bid auction and I think there was just one other bidder. The house had been abused by druggies who rented the place for years, but basically was a sound structure in a great little town.

I'm right next to a grade crossing, and the trains travel along one edge of my property a couple hundred times a day. (Can't call me a NIMBY!) I love seeing them from my second story; makes me feel connected. And it's a pleasure to walk 0.4 mile to the station and find myself downtown inside an hour.

When the trains started rolling there was a big community uproar about the noise of the crossing arm bells and train blasts. Even living at ground zero I never had those complaints and refused to participate in a mass lawsuit (which I think must've disappeared by now.) Anyway, improvements to the sound signals have been made and now there's more noise from a UPS truck idling on the street.

I say more trains! The ambiance onboard and in the stations is great. The disruption to communities is exaggerated. Anyway, we have to do SOMEthing other than clogging the freeways more.

I don't work for metro nor do i have any affiliation with it, but I love it! I grew up in LA, East LA (the actual part that's call East LA), and Boyfriend lives in Glasell Park (LA people would call this the East Side). I love the bus system. I don't take it much now, but it doesn't mean i wouldn't in a heart beat. In fact i did not get my driver's license until i was 21, with much if any hinderence to my social life. I would go out club or bar and take the bus at 1am. The train and bus system in LA will take you EVERYWHERE. I don't care where it is. I don't care if its from long beach to West Covina. It will take you there. It wont take you there in 20 minutes, but frankly unless its 10pm on a Tuesday neither would your car. And you know what, the east side expation of the goldline is tearing neighborhoods apart. A light rail system is sorely needed in east los angeles. I was one of the few people the kenw that the original redline was suppose to service the east side, and was blazing mad then i found out the chose to service people in north hollywood for whom it would be a convinice instead of the thousands of east siders for whom it is need for their livelyhood. If anything I wish they would extend the goldline and make it a loop so that it would better serve the san gabriel valley.

*rant over*

it's crazy to me that metro is a non-profit, but i know that's the reality. for me, living in the valley and working in santa monica is a necessity, because i can't afford to not live in the valley and i can't afford to not work at my job in santa monica. jobs like mine don't grow on trees. so, it's easy to tell someone to find work near their house, but it really all depends on what you do for a living, you know? if i could afford to live in santa monica, i'd move there.

mooncalf, they just started a tram from Union Station to Dodger Stadium for all home games throughout the end of the season.

How is Metro mythical if it exists? Unicorns are mythical.

Here's an interesting snippet about Los Angeles in an article from infoplease.com about the on the history of mass transit:

"The total number of riders in 1970 was less than that of 1910. The reasons for these declines are complex and often political. Los Angeles, for example, had over 1,000 miles of trolley and interurban lines before 1930; this system was taken over by a private company, dismantled, and replaced with noisy, polluting, and comparatively slow buses. Since few people chose to ride them, costs rose, thereby cutting the number of passengers further. To reduce costs, private companies eliminated outlying branches and smaller stations."

Wow. Every time I see or drive over those old tracks it just makes me sad.

My brother lived in LA for about 8 years without a car. He lived in Hollywood and now Silver Lake and worked at the Getty (both of them). That's a LONG commute in a car, but he took the bus. I think if you've got the time to spare, the bus is a great alternative. Now that he's driving (wife takes the bus, he gets the car), he's gotten two tickets in two weeks.
My 15 minute commute is easy, but I would still love to take the bus. Unfortunately, it would take me 1.5 hours to get to work...

I have lived in LA for 3 years and do not own a car. I travel exclusively by bus or train. Any problems the system has are not with the system but with LA itself. It's cheap, convenient and green!

Oh and by the way. The private company that bought up the tram system was General Motors (in collaboration with Firestone) I wonder why they dismantled it?

holland. I wasn't calling you a NIMBY. But if you're familiar with the drama that's going on with the much needed purple line extension, it's more about pple not wanting the stigma of public transit and the inconvenience of it's construction. And that lawsuit with the gold line has the damn train going 25mph in some places. Not really transit friendly, but that made everyone happy. And Jose, I agree that the eastside extension is sorely needed, but knowing about the problems that it's construction has caused... i almost feel that this train might have caused more trouble than it's worse. With every train route made, hundreds of bus lines are changes or removed. Trains might be good for going long distances, but the majority of pple take shorter routes and lose vital access to their own neighborhoods. A stronger bus system seems much more urgent than trains. I dunno. I'm in a strange place because I'm a transit user and work for the company.

I live in Hollywood and take the red line to Downtown every day to go to work. I love it! I used to commute the short 3 mile drive everyday from Silver Lake and I really feel happier that I'm rarely in my car. Also, going out to bars near Hollywood/Vine are great too! I think I despise parking more than driving, so Metro is a great option for me. If anyone is considering doing it I really recommend it.

@kelsi- you're absolutely right. And they got the highways that they needed and we have one less transportation choice because of it.

I have lived in LA for 6 years and do not have a car. I commute from Silver Lake to the Getty by bus (alexxx, do I know your brother?!) and occasionally take the Metro. However, I do admit that having a domestic partner with a car does make things easier sometimes.