‘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: DLM
Occupation: Finance manager
Location: Los Angeles

Your Transportation Routine:

How often do you drive and for what purpose?

I drive daily to and from work, by myself, which is a total of 24 miles round trip and can take as little as 15 minutes each way.  Non-work travel is local or in Northern California.

Where are you typically traveling from and going to?

See above.

How many vehicles do you or your family have?

1

How long does your commute typically take?

15-25 minutes one way.

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

I love it!

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

$300 – $500

Do you use any forms of alternative transportation?

No.

Why do you drive?

Convenient, efficient and provides the freedom to establish my own travel times and distances.

Your Perspective:

Why can’t/don’t you take transit?

Inconvenient.  The amount of time it would take me to walk or drive to a bus/rail pick up location exceeds the time it takes me to get in my car and enjoy a short commute. Besides, I get free parking.

Have you tried to use transit before? What was your experience?

Yes, there were bugs on the bus.  I took the Blue Line rail once and swore I would never ride the crazy thing again.  Who let’s those people camp out on that train?

What could local transit agencies do to encourage you to take transit more often?

Make it less confusing – I discourage visitors from using the bus since it is an absolute nightmare trying to do the right ‘green’ number using public transportation in Los Angeles.  L.A. is just too spread out to achieve any sort of user friendly transit system.  Besides, when people land at LAX where are the announcements that L.A. even has a train system?  All major cities promote their transit systems at airports except LAX.  What gives?

How do you feel about buses?

I probably wouldn’t ride a bus.

How do you feel about rail?

I probably wouldn’t ride rail.

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

Everything is already decided by government and special interest groups.