You'd think that Los Angeles, being home of the stars and thus home of star-watching, would be a city that would do its best to welcome tourists so it could make as much money off them as possible. But if you're a visitor to LA, you're really on your own as far as figuring out how to get anywhere.
LA is known for its legendary traffic, but it also has exhorbitant parking costs, so what visitor is going to rent a car here? Better to take the public transportation and get where you want to go for a lot cheaper. There's still a problem with that plan though! There are at least three different cities operating public transportation around the LA area: Los Angeles, Santa Monica, and Culver City (which, incedentally, is just a part of west LA). On top of that, many of the bus numbers overlap from city to city, so when you want to get on the Metro 2, you might end up on the Blue Bus 2 instead (since they stupidly pick up at many of the same spots along their [very similar, but not similar enough] routes!). As for the LA Metro, there are Metro Local buses, Metro Rapid buses, Metro Express buses, and then just three or four Metro Rail lines for the entire city.
The public transportation has been a source of frustration for us for the past few days, and we realized how much we loved the simplicity of Boston's MBTA. We also have a greater appreciation for New York City's extensive subway system, as well as all the crosstown and up/downtown buses. Even the public transportation in LAS VEGAS was easier to deal with than here. At least in Vegas, all we had to contend with was the lack of expediency, but we always knew where we were going. In LA, the buses are slow, fares are not constant through the three seperate systems, and many of the buses have different AM/PM routes.
The biggest issue is that the vast majority of Los Angelenos drive their own cars, so there is really no motivation to update, consolidate, and streamline the current public transportation. There really needs to be a Los Angeles Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority, but LAMATA doesn't really roll of the tongue.
Good news (for me anyway): Yesterday we visited the cemetary where Marilyn Monroe was buried; we saw her Hollywood Boulevard Walk of Fame Star; and we saw the concrete slab in front of Graumans Chinese Theater where Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell immortalized their handprints and shoeprints for the premiere of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes in 1953. We also had a lovely dinner at Campanile, courtesy (mostly) of Ben working there for a couple days!
We'll be heading up the coast again on Sunday or Monday. Trip Stats: we've surpassed 5800 miles, we're holding steady around 9.5mpg, and our cost per mile at this point is down to 36 cents/mile! Yay cheap gas!
-Lily
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2 comments:
Marilyn "was" buried or "is" buried? Just wondering. If it is "was buried" then where is she now? Hope you didn't see any Kennedy's around there. :-)
Well, she "was" buried there, but still "is" buried there. Well, technically she's not buried at all, she's in an above ground crypt or whatever it's called...
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