Riding on an L.A. City Bus
Famliy-owned, Word of Life Christian Bookstore, is celebrating 50 years of operations on Main Street. The family owns three location in Los Angeles and is considered one of the largest outlets for Christian literature in Southern California.
PVJOBS on Main St. provides training and job placement for careers in construction for at-risk Angelenos. Applicants must meet certain requirements such as a history of substance abuse and have been referred from a partnered advocacy group.
LACMA has a special library program where representatives go to libraries throughout Los Angeles and teach art to children and their families for free. At the Junipero Serra Library, children are taught art techniques such as drawing, painting and sculpting. However, the purpose of the program is not just to teach kids art skills; it's also about exposing the kids to culture and getting them to interact with one another.
For some driving a car is a necessity, but with the increased difficulty of owning a car in Los Angeles many residents around Main Street have found that public transportation is a nice way to get around town.
The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) offers Los Angeles citizens cheap and easy access to the city through numerous bus routes along the city's streets.
For people like retired Coysteen Carrigan of Los Angeles, this service is a great convenience.
"I ride the bus just about every day," Carrigan said. "I have to go to and from doctor's appointments and such. What I like most about the bus is that I don't have to go and wrestle with traffic."
While Carrigan chooses to ride public transportation to make it to her daily destinations, she notes that she once had a car before making her conscious decision to without because of the financial strain of having a car (which has become a common concern for many).
"I sold my car. It's not like I'm anti-car or nothing, it's just that riding the bus here in Los Angeles frees me up to do a lot of more things like I don't have to be worried about gas prices and insurance."Even though Carrigan feels like riding the bus is the best option for her, she says that there are some occasional irritations that come with the territory.
"You never know what kind of people you are going to run into. You might run into people having a nice day or not and a lot of times people want to get something off their chest and they pick on certain incidence to get it off."
Sandra Garcia of Guatemala, who uses the bus system frequently, echoes these sentiments and notes the behavior of the bus drivers in particular as a problem that needs attention.
"I think they need to make a change by getting better [people] to drive the buses," Garcia said. "Sometimes the drivers don't pick you up and don't look at people when they are standing at the stop. They look the other way when we're at the door. Sometimes, not always."
Garcia and other frequent bus riders say that the consistency of the drivers could be better and the machines used to count money at the front of the bus don't help the situation much.
"The machine on the bus doesn't always work and the [driver] has said 'Oh you didn't pay for the day pass' and she asks me to pay again. It's happened to me three times! I paid, but the [driver] didn't press the button. They should be checking the machine every time. It's their job. They should be tending to the people."
For some, this problem is easily avoided by choosing another alternative to get around town: the metro train. Los Angeles resident Joanna Mendez is quick to point out the metro train's many benefits.
"I prefer the metro train because it's faster. It's not safe, but it will get you anywhere you want," Mendez said. "If you take the bus it takes longer because it makes certain stops at each intersection' but the metro is just straight and more continuous."
Mendez, who goes to school at L.A. Trade Tech right next to one of the line's stops, says she feels bad for those who have to struggle with the busy streets of L.A.
"In the car there's traffic and it's hot. You get grumpy after work and just want to get home. The metro is faster and more relaxing. You can just ride the train. You meet some strange people, but it's L.A. what are you going to say you know? I'm used to all of that so I like it."
Del Collins of the San Fernando Valley, who also attends nearby L.A. Trade Tech and leaves his car behind, uses his downtime on the rail to get his work done.
"I do have a car, but with the gas prices I prefer to leave my car down at the Hollywood train station and catch the metro here because it's easy, more convenient, and gives me time to study on the train," Collins said.
With a city as large and diverse as Los Angeles it is no wonder so many people use the Metro's services to get around Main Street and with the money that it takes to operate a car these days we are sure to see more and more people making the switch.
If you would like to try out the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority to make it to one of your destinations you can visit the Metro's website and plan your trip at thier Metro Trip Planner.
