‘Why You Ride (or Don’t Ride)‘ is a series where you, our faithful readers, share your transportation routines in L.A. and your thoughts on how to make things better – read more about the concept here.

Want to share your story? Take the survey here if you ride transit regularly, or take this one if you don’t ride.

Who You Are:

Name: Andrew D
Occupation: Sales
Location: San Fernando Valley

Your Transit Routine:

How often do you take transit and for what purpose?

Most days. I commute by bike and bus.

Where are you typically traveling from and going to?

Home and work.

What lines/routes do you take?

Line 169.

How long does it typically take?

30 minutes.

Briefly, how would you describe your typical transit experience? Love it, deal with it, or hate it?

I deal with it.

On average, what do you spend each month on transportation?

$300 – $500

Why do you take transit?

We are now a one car family and I’m happy to use transit and my bike.

Other Transportation:

Do you use any other forms of alternative transportation?

Bike and car.

Are you car-free? If so, why? If not, why not?

We went from a 2 car family to 1. It would not be practical to go car-free in L.A.

Your Perspective:

If you could make one change to improve your transit experience, what would it be?

More frequent service. Line 169 goes once per hour and that really detracts from the service – particularly if I get bumped due to the bike spots being full.
Bikes should be allowed in the wheel chair space providing there are enough seats for passengers, and nobody’s using the wheel chair space.

Given limited funds, how would you address L.A.’s transportation issues?

More orange line type of solution.

More use of GPS so passengers can make connections – i.e. a message to the driver to wait for a couple of minutes so that the connecting service can catch up. This should be possible with GPS. Also traffic signal priority for buses. Bus lanes for peak hours.

Do you think L.A. transit is better or worse since you started riding? What’s changed?

Its about the same (1 year). Bikes are getting more popular which results in getting bumped more often.

How would you encourage Angelenos to use transit?

Make it faster.