By Andrea Gutierrez

» Orig­i­nal­ly pub­lished on OnSheGoes.com (August 16, 2017)

I hate dri­ving. It’s not just the traf­fic or the amount of mon­ey I’ve sunk into the most basic upkeep of own­ing a car—I hate the act of dri­ving. And yet I dri­ve every day, usu­al­ly alone, through clogged streets and free­ways, anoth­er lone dri­ver in a car she both loathes and depends on. There are days when I miss expe­ri­enc­ing Los Ange­les with­out a car, as I did right after college—days when I am tired and want some­one to dri­ve me while I read, days when I want to feel the wind on my face while I bike and remem­ber what it was like to feel a lit­tle freer. This might be a strange thing to hear from some­one who was born and raised in South­ern Cal­i­for­nia, the sup­posed Car Cap­i­tal of the World.

Don’t let guide books fool you: You don’t need a car to enjoy L.A. As a vis­i­tor, you have more options for oth­er modes of trans­porta­tion than get­ting stuck in bumper-to-bumper traf­fic, and they are often more inter­est­ing. Mil­lions of Ange­lenos man­age with­out a car—they go to work, take their chil­dren to school and day­care, run errands, and are able to explore every­thing from the moun­tains to the sea. It’s not always easy or the most con­ve­nient, but with some plan­ning and an open mind, you’ll get around just fine.

Bus & Rail

The TAP Card—the uni­ver­sal fare card for 26 tran­sit agen­cies in Los Ange­les Coun­ty, includ­ing Ante­lope Val­ley Tran­sit, Long Beach Tran­sit, San­ta Mon­i­ca Big Blue Bus, and Foothill Transit—will be essen­tial on your pub­lic tran­sit jour­ney. The card itself costs $1 and can be reloaded online and at train sta­tion fare machines.

Although it’s entic­ing to lim­it your­self to the Metro rail lines (Los Ange­les Coun­ty Met­ro­pol­i­tan Trans­porta­tion Author­i­ty) that have pro­lif­er­at­ed in recent years, there will be times that the buswill get you to your des­ti­na­tion faster, thanks in part to the Bus Rid­ers Union, an orga­ni­za­tion whose tire­less efforts for bet­ter bus ser­vice and low­er fares have long been a thorn in Metro’s side. If I want to get from North­east L.A. to the Nat­ur­al His­to­ry Muse­um in Expo­si­tion Park, I can take three dif­fer­ent rail lines or board the 81 bus, which goes direct­ly to my des­ti­na­tion. Vis­i­tors might also con­sid­er some of the express bus lines, such as Metro Rapid (num­bers 700–799), which take rid­ers across wide swaths of L.A. My favorite line is the Metro 720, going from East L.A. to San­ta Mon­i­ca and pass­ing through Down­town, MacArthur Park, and Kore­atown, by LACMA (Los Ange­les Coun­ty Muse­um of Art), the Ham­mer Muse­um, and UCLA.

Bik­ing

Bik­ing in Los Ange­les has got­ten safer in the last decade, but it still requires some guts and patience. The Los Ange­les Coun­ty Bicy­cle Coali­tion and Mul­ti­cul­tur­al Com­mu­ni­ties for Mobil­i­ty have worked hard to advo­cate for increased vis­i­bil­i­ty, health, and safe­ty for bik­ing. Bike lanes, though avail­able through­out L.A., have been a sore sub­ject for many long­time res­i­dents who see the pro­lif­er­a­tion of a bicy­cle infra­struc­ture as part of the gen­tri­fi­ca­tion gnaw­ing away at neigh­bor­hoods of col­or at a steady clip. Thou­sands of Ange­lenos take to the streets with their bikes sev­er­al times a year at CicLAvia, a pop­u­lar event where streets along a pre­de­ter­mined route are closed to car traf­fic, and folks on foot, bikes, skates, and skate­boards hit the pave­ment for a day with­out cars. Los Ange­les, along with neigh­bor­ing cities San­ta Mon­i­ca and Long Beach, is final­ly home to bike shares, used by vis­i­tors and locals alike for dai­ly, month­ly, or per-ride fees. Vis­i­tors might enjoy rides along such pop­u­lar bike paths as the Los Ange­les Riv­er bike path, Arroyo Seco Trail, or the L.A. Beach Bike Path that runs along the sand from San­ta Mon­i­ca to Redon­do Beach. In addi­tion to bike shares, rentals may be avail­able at bike shops and co-ops. 

Union Sta­tion

Tack­ling the expan­sive­ness of Los Ange­les and its sub­urbs with­out a car is less daunt­ing when you think of it in terms of a cen­tral sta­tion that’s con­nect­ed to dif­fer­ent trans­porta­tion options and routes. Union Sta­tion, the home of Metro, serves as the most con­nect­ed hub, with bus and rail lines from all over South­ern Cal­i­for­nia pass­ing through. Bikes are allowed on most bus­es and trains, with bike park­ing and lock­ers avail­able at the sta­tion. Oth­er tran­sit hubs include 7th Street/Metro Cen­ter sta­tion, Western/Wilshire sta­tion, North Hol­ly­wood sta­tion, and Cul­ver City sta­tion, among others.

Union Sta­tion is a des­ti­na­tion in itself. Built in the 1930s and con­sid­ered by many to be the “Last of the Great Rail­way Sta­tions,” the loca­tion replaced L.A.’s orig­i­nal Chi­na­town. The old tick­et­ing hall has been fea­tured in count­less films, ads, and TV shows, and serves as an impres­sive venue for arts events through­out the year. Snap a self­ie in the high-backed seats of the wait­ing hall, but be quick—only tick­et­ed pas­sen­gers are allowed to sit there, a con­tro­ver­sial mea­sure tak­en by Metro in 2013 to dis­cour­age peo­ple expe­ri­enc­ing home­less­ness from access­ing this pub­lic space. Union Sta­tion also con­nects to the LAX Fly­Away, an inex­pen­sive option for air­port trans­fers; the Dodger Sta­di­um Express, a free shut­tle to Dodger Sta­di­um; and inter­ci­ty bus com­pa­nies trav­el­ing to pop­u­lar des­ti­na­tions like San Fran­cis­co, Oak­land, and Las Vegas.

Sev­er­al sights are with­in walk­ing dis­tance of Union Sta­tion. La Placita Olvera, or Olvera Street, is near the site of the orig­i­nal Tong­va vil­lage, and lat­er the Span­ish set­tle­ment that would become Los Ange­les, and hosts numer­ous com­mu­ni­ty events through­out the year. Near­by are the Chi­nese Amer­i­can Muse­um, housed in the old­est and last sur­viv­ing struc­ture of L.A.’s orig­i­nal Chi­na­town, and LA Plaza de Cul­tura y Artes, a cul­tur­al cen­ter that cel­e­brates the Chi­canx expe­ri­ence in Los Angeles.