public transport

I ride the bus a lot, it's a big part of my carlessness, it's where I see others like me.

Los Angeles is a city built up since at least the 60s on the idea that people would have cars and be able to drive them everywhere. It's really become part of the culture to drive here, it's generally considered the first best option. Like in Steve Martin's LA Story when he literally drives across the street to visit a friend

On many occasions though, it actually does make sense to take public transport. Avoid road rage, save money on parking, valets, don't have to drive home drunk after clubbing, and can get stuff done like reading, writing, meditating, thinking, sleeping. It's always more environmentally friendly and generally safter on public transport than when driving alone.

I wish Agelinos would ride the bicycles, busses, rails and water taxis(?) of this great metropolis whenever possible. Stop excess pollution, unnecessary traffic, get out of their insulated, bad-karma-mobiles.

That was my attitude even before I lost my car. If I could avoid driving, I did. Living in compact Westwood Village afforded me that opportunity daily. Errands are done on foot here, mostly.

Ideally, I'd love mass transit to be something for the masses, instead of something only as a last resort sought by those with their cars in the shop and the working poor who can't afford them. Like in Boston, New York, London, etc. A stat I found recently in an online newspaper stated that in Manhattan 75% of people don't have cars and take public transport.

That's awesome! That means it's normal not to drive there, it's normal to be carless, you can partake fully in the life of the city without a car. Which is arguably impossible in L.A.

Say my friends from north county are having a beach bonfire at county line. I'd like to go but there's no bus service out that way past 9PM and the bonfire doesn't even start till 10. Or say there's a cool event in Long Beach I want to check out. It's about 2 1/2 hours on public transport for what would be a 40 minute car trip.

It'd just be so easy, convenient and require hardly any planning or thought to make those trips with a car.

I'm thinking of getting a vespa

Anyone know of any good places to buy one?

Thanks!

Walking/running more

I get more exercise without a car, I'm in better shape. I walk/run more. Every morning I walk (or run if I'm late--I nearly always am) three blocks from my west Westwood Village apartment to my East Westwood Village bus stop. I always pass a homeless guy on the way. Sometimes he'll yell "faster!", or when I'm running slower or walking he'll say "not late today." That precious interaction each day makes my boring life that much more interesting.

After I get off the Culver City 6 or the Santa Monica 1, either way a ten minute walk to my office, it's usually about 5 till 9 or later. I work 9 to 6, give or take, okay just take.

Sometimes after literally running in late, my supervisor will say to coworkers, "Now that's the face of a man who ran to work."

After a long day at the lemon law office, I often just walk 35 minutes home. It's a nice way to unwind from a hectic day of ball-busting shouting lawyers and "I am fortune's fool!" clients with shitty new cars.

I see nature walking through Westwood park and take time to smell the flowers. Best of all I save 75 cents bus fare.

How I became carless in L.A.

I was driving home from a publicist's apartment in Orange County, merging to the 5 from the 91 East. My black 19931/2 Saab Aero's electrical functions died for a moment and resurrected (as they intermittenly had), then expired permanently.

I had spent the past five months jobless, living off a sizable savings, spending precious hundreds paying the small-potatoes publicist to try to jumpstart my utter lack of acting career. It hadn't worked.

Nearly broke, I was already in the midst of a frantic job search, ready to do just about any soul killing job for money, except anything involving porn or violence.

I had no money for car expenses, no more money for the publicist. I felt as if my life in L.A. had just been slammed over the head with a grey fold-up chair.

The car was towed off the freeway by AAA, then to my parents' house by a guy my dad knew. Parents paid to fix it and sold it.