bus riding in los angeles

los angeles magazine has a piece by d.j. wade on riding the bus in los angeles (the url looks fragile, so it will likely be a different article next month). tony pierce responds on his busblog.

the mta should sell the map of the system online. i'd get at least two. (and the online trip planner totally failed me for a recent early-morning trip.)

i've actually done the red-blue-green-shuttle route to lax a few times, and have to say i never feared for my safety at any of the transfer points. you could easily spot the people headed to the airport via the green line. (and i'll admit confusion as to whether a single ticket+transfer is good enough to take that trip. i've always played it safe by using two tickets and one transfer.)

oh, one big exception to take to the article. the author writes: I'm lucky those drivers have been so willing to tax themselves to benefit a transit system few of them will ever use. this ignores the rather large subsidization of automobile travel, particuarly in southern california.