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The Real Los Angeles From A Bus Window
From the window of local roads, we are reminded of everything wrong with the city
Once gas hit $6.00 a gallon I stopped driving in Los Angeles. I cancelled my car insurance. I downloaded the Tap card app to use public transport in the city and familiarized myself with local bus and train routes. The obvious first difference was my commute time. What was originally a roughly 35 minute commute from Korea Town to Hawthorne became a 70 minute commute.
Stepping onto my first bus I already saw some issues. The Tap scanner, which charges your Tap card, printed the error message “Config Error” on the screen. A failure mode I have learned happens about a fifth of the time. While it was great that I got a free bus ride, it’s not great for the city who now has incorrect metrics on rider rates and further underpaid metro system. Subconsciously, I tossed the failure up to the already preconceived understanding I had of the dilapidated state of the city’s infrastructure.
I grabbed a seat in the bus and began to watch the world go by from the window of the elongated rectangle. The typical Los Angeles failures were obvious from this view. The poor hygiene of the city emphasized by the garbage that drifted through the streets like synthetic tumble weeds.
