‘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: ALW
Occupation: Retired
Location: Wisconsin

Your Transit Routine:

How often do you take transit and for what purpose?

I use transit to go lots of places while visiting my sister several times a year.

Where are you typically traveling from and going to?

Long Beach to LA, Hollywood, Santa Monica, Pasadena.

What lines/routes do you take?

All Metro rail lines, plus bus lines 720, 2, 4, 260, 780, 217, 16, 130 and  several others that I can’t remember the numbers of right now.

How long does it typically take?

Depends where I’m going.

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

I love it!

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

$50 – $100

Why do you take transit?

I’m a public transit freak — I love to ride buses and trains and see where I can get to.

Other Transportation:

Do you use any other forms of alternative transportation?

Bicycle, walk; also cross country ski and snowshoe — not in LA, though.

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

No. At home I live in a very rural area where public transit is usually not an option.

Your Perspective:

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

Have day passes available on TAP cards from train vending machines or from bus drivers. Orange County and Long Beach both have machine readable day passes available on buses.

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

A subway to the Westside would be great, but expensive. Putting more buses on Wilshire won’t work — there simply isn’t room for more traffic.

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

It’s gotten better. Options have expanded. When I first started riding, the Blue Line was not yet completed.

How would you encourage Angelenos to use transit?

Beats me. Many of them seem convinced you can’t get anywhere without a car. Lots of people are amazed when I tell them it’s not all that difficult. At one convention I attended at the Convention Center the locals who were manning the info station had no idea how to even get from Downtown to places like Universal or the Getty – or what bus fare was. I sent them to the MTA store that was at the Arco Plaza at that time and got myself a temporary volunteer job helping them out.