(no subject)

[fabrisse]

I don't understand Southern Californians.

Gasoline is well over $3.00 a gallon. It's going up. And people are saying that they will quit their jobs rather than take the bus.

Seriously. In my office, I overheard that conversation.

My jaw has dropped past my knees.

I've been trying to find a viable way to make it to my office by public transportation for months. (In a weird moment of synchronicity, I actually discovered the correct way to accomplish this. It will take over 2 hours to make it to work. I have issues with getting up early, but 45.00 per week for gas will help me overcome them.) Somehow, it makes me less than human not to want to drive 32 miles a day.

Part of that overheard conversation included the line, "I wouldn't feel like a person if I had to take the bus."

*whimper*

Comments

[brianh]

We've got some really ... unique types down here, don't we? *sighs* I -was- taking the bus for a while (and the green line and the blue line and the red line) to get to Cal State LA, but I gave it up and borrowed my parents' spare car, paying for my own gas and doing the maintenance checks, when I realized that way was taking as long or longer than fighting the 710 on a daily basis. Mostly, the busses and such aren't too bad-- the rail lines are actually pretty neat, come to think of it, and a lot of the stations have some interesting decoration.

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

I love to read. Buses let me do that.

And three dollars a day for the bus versus $45 per week for the car is also pretty persuasive

But I will have a reasonably straightforward commute. There's just on easy change, and the second bus drops me pretty much at my office. Any closer and I wouldn't have to walk to my desk. *G*

Nice to see you in my LJ.

[brianh]

Pleased to be here. Yeah. Reading is my heart and soul, and the commute by car doesn't let me do that (whereas on the trip from Westchester to CSULA, I could study for classes, get homework done, and have time for a small novel. :P)

It was driving me to distraction for a while, but I found a solution: Books on CD. My mom, while a big fantasy fan in her youth, doesn't have much time for pleasure reading these days; so when the LotR movies came out, she got the books on CD so she could recapture the memories after watching the movies. So I used those at first, and, when my finances or gifts allowed, I bought Terry Pratchett CDs.

Then I got her hooked on those. :D Poor grad student's income vs. well paid LAUSD official's; suddenly it became a LOT easier to get stuff for the trip. And, well, when time came around for the multihour trips out to the dig site at 29 palms, I had enough saved to buy the cube o' CDs that is the Books-on-CDs version of the Silmarillion, read by Martin Shaw. If you have the chance and like Tolkein (and can spare the cash), I _highly_ recommend it; he has the kind of deep, rich voice that really meshes well with the gravitas and style of the book.

[brianh]

Oh man. I once tried using bus routes to get to CSULA rather than switching on the trains, since the bus route ended up being a straighter line, and the Blue Line gets trapped in central LA anyway. Big Mistake. I missed _one_ bus barely, and the wait for the next one was an hour.

[thorbol.livejournal.com]

I guess I surrendered my personhood a long, long time ago.

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

Not hardly. *G*

Since I'm so lame about getting stuff mailed, the chocolates are coming with me.

See you in less than a month.

[tijmetje.livejournal.com]

I've been reading your LJ for a little while now, but I don't think I've commented before. Couldn't help commenting now, though.

It's possible the public transport situation in the Netherlands is a little different, especially in large cities, but I'm still rather surprised by those comments. Does taking the bus make you sub-human? Is mass-transport not good enough for tough, American individualists?

I thought Southern California was filled with assorted environmentalists?

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

Begroeten! (Not that I have much chance to practice my very little Dutch anymore.)

Public transportation in the United States is, in a word, bad. There are three major exceptions to this statement: New York, Boston, and Chicago. There are a few minor exceptions, too. The ones that I have at least a passing familiarity with are the Atlanta and D.C. Metros and BART (San Francisco).

Everywhere else makes do with outdated buses on routes that only make sense for maids or the unemployed. Outside the Northeastern US, mass transit is a class issue.

High gas prices may start to change that.

Most Americans associate possession of a car with freedom. There's a reason why so many of our novels take place either in cars or on the open road. After Eisenhower signed the highway system into existence, we, as a nation, abandoned trains. Cars let you go wherever you want to by any route you choose. There's no need to conform to someone else's schedule.

But then there's gridlock and holiday weekend deaths and crowding.

Until I came to Southern California, though, I'd never run into the extreme versions of this.

There are environmentalists here. But there are alot more movie folks and movie folks -- even the minor ones that I know -- are extremely concerned with appearances.

One of my first encounters with Southern California's obsession with how things look -- and taking the bus makes you look poor or illegal or something -- came the first time I visited here. I'm not a small woman. Ever since a series of injuries starting about a decade ago, I've been fat.

I went to the ladies room of a restaurant and the women changed their conversation from a trip they were planning to how fat people should know how offensive they looked and not leave the house.

The story Gileswench tells in the comment below about the lawns rather than serescaping is also telling.

It's times like these that I really miss living in Brussels or London where I either walked or trained EVERYWHERE. I used my car so seldom that once I hadn't noticed that I'd been towed for over a week. (Imagine that impound fee). That would be completely impossible here.

[moria923.livejournal.com]

I'm very glad I'm not a southern Californian any more, as much as I sometimes miss the weather. I think I might enjoy living there if I could live in Santa Monica and work at UCLA, since then the buses would be frequent and convenient. But overall, I remember the transit situation out there being just BAD.

I wonder if your coworkers would consider those of us who can't drive subhuman?

[catspaw-sgjd.livejournal.com]

I went to the ladies room of a restaurant and the women changed their conversation from a trip they were planning to how fat people should know how offensive they looked and not leave the house.

::boggles::

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

My mind boggled at the time. The only good thing to come out of it was that Mom saw how hurt I was and didn't make a single comment about my weight on that trip. It may have been only 4 days, but from my mother that was an heroic effort at niceness.

The more I think about the whole transportation issue, the more I think this is a class and perception issue rather than really being about the transport.

[gileswench.livejournal.com]

I've long found that SoCal has very different ways of viewing the world than NorCal. We both have utterly screwed public transportation, but up here people don't think it makes them less than human to take BART or the bus. It's an attitude I honestly don't understand at all.

Then again, when one of my brothers and his wife lived in San Diego briefly, they had a small garden and decided to be environmentally sensitive to the fact they were living in a desert by planting succulents. Every one of the neighbors was horrified. Didn't they understand that only green, glossy, perfectly manicured golf-course-style grass comprised a proper yard???

I think a savings like that is well worth getting up earlier, assuming it works out anywhere near as conveniently otherwise as suggested. That much extra money in your pocket, and the chance to read and decompress while commuting, will do wonders for both your budget and your attitude toward life. Plus you can save wear and tear on your car for more important things...like coming North to visit me as soon as you reasonably can!

[fabrisse.livejournal.com]

That is an excellent thing to save my car for.

I must admit that I'm still looking into another bus alternative. The brand new Orange line is efficient and clean and I'd rather take it. It stops four miles (straight shot) from my office. And I can't find a single bus that goes left to right instead of paralleling the orange line to get me there. If I were more confident of my skills on a bike, I'd fasten one to the front of the bus and bike the fifteen minutes it would take me. I'm pretty sure I'd end up as pavement pizza pretty quickly. There are no bike lanes in Northridge.

Public bicycling

[(Anonymous)]

Ever considered the bike accessory concept of a 4 foot pole with a sharp spear point on each end? Just hold it crosswise along your handlebars, and see how many drivers will risk their paint job...

Hugs,

Ki-lin
Feeling particularly bike-serkerish on Fabi's account.

P.S. HAve you had any interaction w/ the state Employment Development Dept for CA? The MA one is quite good. Check their website and see what they offer. http://www.edd.ca.gov/ONE-STOP/default.htm