So I play bass in a band that rehearses in Hollywood. (If you're reading this from anywhere other than Southern California, believe me, it ain't that glamorous.) But getting to Hollywood from the San Fernando Valley by car is a big pain in the behind, especially in the late afternoon. Traffic is everywhere; not only on the 101 Freeway but even the streets around it are clogged with cars. Couple that with the parking rates in Hollywood, which in many parking lots are double what they were a year or two ago, and it became unacceptable to me to get to our rehearsal space by car anymore.
Luckily, the Metro Red Line has a stop a block away from our lock-out, so I decided to give the subway a shot. My first few tries I went full tilt, driving a mere 1.5 miles from my apartment to a nearby Orange Line station, and riding the Fake Train (see one of my earlier posts for the origin of that label) to North Hollywood, where I'd pick up the Red Line subway and ride it to Hollywood. The trip cost me 5 bucks for a day pass, but kept me from having to drive and saved me from shelling out $8 in parking. That put me ahead by at least three bucks.
But a couple of trips on the Orange Line put me off that damned thing for good. So I decided to split the trip in half: drive myself to North Hollywood (on a surface street nowhere near the freeway), then ride the Red Line for $1.25 each way. I have to drive a little more, but I don't torture myself riding that stupid Orange Line BRT. And I've switched to the Universal City station, because there aren't as many freaks hanging out there as in NoHo. I feel like I still come out way ahead, not just in cost, but convenience. I can pretty accurately time my drive so that I arrive at the station about the same time every time, so I arrive to rehearsal on time and ready to rock without having to complain about the traffic. Naturally, being LA, there are some pretty colorful people riding the subway with me; more on that topic next time.
Showing posts with label Red Line. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Red Line. Show all posts
15 February, 2010
30 December, 2008
Walking tour of LA
Just so you don't think I created this blog as nothing more than a series of rants, I also plan to include examples of some very cool things to do by rail in LA. And the first of them is one of my most recent excursions.
My fiancée and I spent the Christmas holiday at home, one of those 'stay-cations'. We wanted to do things that someone visiting Los Angeles might do as a tourist. So on this particular day we set off on a walking tour of LA. We started out by taking the Red Line downtown; the instructions actually said to get off at Pershing Square. So after a 30-minute subway ride, there we were, on a rather chilly December morning, guide book in hand, ready for an adventure.
And it was an adventure! It was a self-guided tour; the booklet we'd brought had brief descriptions of each point of interest, and specific instructions on how to get from one place to the next. Among other things, we saw (drawing from a not-so-great memory here): the Angels Flight funicular, a rail system unto itself, incidentally; the Grand Central Market; the Oviatt Building; the Gas Company Building; the Biltmore Hotel and the Bradbury Building. We missed things like the Los Angeles Central Library because we ran short on time...we had an appointment to meet a horse. We honestly thought two hours would be enough time to see everything in the guide booklet, but were we ever wrong. We didn't realize that we'd want to spent so much time at each stop.
It was really fun seeing LA through the eyes of a visitor. We didn't imagine many locals have done such a thing. In fact, one person, overhearing us reading from the guide and talking about what we were seeing, asked us where we were from.
When we were finished, we wound just just about where we'd started, near the Pershing Square station. We descended the escalator (how can it be called an escalator when it's going down?), boarded the subway five minutes later, and road the train back to the North Hollywood station where we started.
This kind of activity would have been much more complicated if we'd had to drive and park somewhere, not to mention more expensive. Riding the Red Line made it simple, affordable and mostly fun. There was an odd-smelling person sitting a bit too near on the journey home. Otherwise, the train was clean and on time.
One final note: until very recently, the train operators on the Red Line would announce the station stops and transfer information themselves over the PA. I'd say about half the time they could be understood. But on this particular day, I noticed that Metro had employed a recording similar to that used on the Gold Line since its first day of operation. A big improvement, I say. Now "stand clear, doors closing" doesn't sound like "stand here, you're boring". Nice job, Metro!
My fiancée and I spent the Christmas holiday at home, one of those 'stay-cations'. We wanted to do things that someone visiting Los Angeles might do as a tourist. So on this particular day we set off on a walking tour of LA. We started out by taking the Red Line downtown; the instructions actually said to get off at Pershing Square. So after a 30-minute subway ride, there we were, on a rather chilly December morning, guide book in hand, ready for an adventure.
And it was an adventure! It was a self-guided tour; the booklet we'd brought had brief descriptions of each point of interest, and specific instructions on how to get from one place to the next. Among other things, we saw (drawing from a not-so-great memory here): the Angels Flight funicular, a rail system unto itself, incidentally; the Grand Central Market; the Oviatt Building; the Gas Company Building; the Biltmore Hotel and the Bradbury Building. We missed things like the Los Angeles Central Library because we ran short on time...we had an appointment to meet a horse. We honestly thought two hours would be enough time to see everything in the guide booklet, but were we ever wrong. We didn't realize that we'd want to spent so much time at each stop.
It was really fun seeing LA through the eyes of a visitor. We didn't imagine many locals have done such a thing. In fact, one person, overhearing us reading from the guide and talking about what we were seeing, asked us where we were from.
When we were finished, we wound just just about where we'd started, near the Pershing Square station. We descended the escalator (how can it be called an escalator when it's going down?), boarded the subway five minutes later, and road the train back to the North Hollywood station where we started.
This kind of activity would have been much more complicated if we'd had to drive and park somewhere, not to mention more expensive. Riding the Red Line made it simple, affordable and mostly fun. There was an odd-smelling person sitting a bit too near on the journey home. Otherwise, the train was clean and on time.
One final note: until very recently, the train operators on the Red Line would announce the station stops and transfer information themselves over the PA. I'd say about half the time they could be understood. But on this particular day, I noticed that Metro had employed a recording similar to that used on the Gold Line since its first day of operation. A big improvement, I say. Now "stand clear, doors closing" doesn't sound like "stand here, you're boring". Nice job, Metro!
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