How to Get Around in Los Angeles

As said Los Angeles is a freeway beast! A distinctive feature of the Los Angeles region is its organization around the principal freeway corridors. The central east-west corridor is the Santa Monica Freeway (I-10), which carries hundreds of thousands of vehicles every day through a string of urban commercial centers from Santa Monica on the Pacific Ocean to Palm Springs in the Mohave Desert. Three freeways link the region's central districts in the northwest-southeast direction, paralleling the Pacific Ocean: the San Diego Freeway (I-405), the Harbor-Pasadena Freeway (I-110), and the Golden State Freeway (I-5). The major freeway interchanges each handle hundreds of thousands of vehicles every day, and the entire regional system carries millions of vehicles each day.
The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) runs the region’s mass transit system, consisting of buses and light rail, heavy rail, and commuter rail lines. The Metro Rail system is a mostly aboveground light rail network serving the core areas with trains and subways. However, the majority of the mass transit riders use the MTA’s vast bus network.

Anyway, we would strongly advise you to get a rental car. It’s affordable, safe en very convenient. Of course the safety also depends a bit on your driving skills.

Car-Rental

From Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) or some City locations it’s very easy to get some affordable rental-car deals. Make sure you get the whole package including full insurance and make note that most rates on the Internet do not show insurance rates included in the price. Insurance would range between $10 and $20 a day extra. California Law allows you to add an extra driver to your rental agreement for no additional charge. However when the (additional) driver is younger then 25, most rental-car companies charge extra. Checkout our TravelDesk for more information on car-rental prices, locations and hot deals.

Taxi Service

Another option would of course be the use of cabs a.k.a. taxi’s. However we would then suggest you get a hotel in or close to Santa Monica as this would be your best starting point to explore more of LA. And, staying here, would allow you to take Santa Monica’s Big Blue Bus, we think the only bus system around that is pretty good. Check it out below!

Fare information
All Passengers Ride for Price of One
(Fare information subject to change without notice!)

$2.00 Flag drop (1/10 mile or 32 seconds or fraction thereof).
$0.20 Each additional 1/10 mile or part.
$0.20 Each 32 seconds of waiting or traffic delay time.
$38.00 Flat fare per trip (group) either direction, between LAX and Downtown. Area bounded by Alameda St., Santa Monica Fwy., Harbor Fwy., Cesar E. Chavez, Union Station and Chinatown.
$2.50 Surcharge for all trips originating at LAX.

Checkout www.taxicabsla.org for more information about the City of Los Angeles authorized taxi companies, their telephone numbers, and service areas.

Public Transport

You can choose between Los Angeles Metro or Santa Monica’s Big Blue Bus. As said, we prefer the Big Blue. Big Blue lines run from and to Santa Monica.

The origin of the Big Blue Bus of Santa Monica outlined below is derived from their site.

At the turn of the last century, the Pacific Electric Railroad ran trolley lines between Downtown Los Angeles and neighboring cities. During a recession in 1914, a group of unemployed automobile owners began using their cars to compete with the railway in Santa Monica. These drivers charged riders five cents and were called jitneys, a common name at the time for a nickel.

In 1921, as the population of Santa Monica doubled, business boomed and the jitney drivers incorporated as Bay Cities Transit Company, and they were soon operating buses throughout the city. In 1928, the City of Santa Monica launched its own bus line and over 16,000 passengers rode the new buses the first week. They chose a blue color scheme for their buses and called their service Santa Monica Municipal Bus Lines.

By 1947, the regular bus rate was 10 cents, but costs kept rising and both the City of Santa Monica and the Bay Cities Transit lines were losing money. In 1950, Bay Cities Transit sold out to Santa Monica Municipal Bus Lines, by now more commonly known as the Blue Bus. Today, the transportation agency has a fleet of approximately 183 buses and carries 22 million passengers a year with a 97% on-time performance record. The name was officially changed to "Santa Monica's Big Blue Bus" in 1999 at which time the agency also changed the graphic design to the eye-catching "ice blue" currently on each bus.

The Big Blue Bus has won the American Transportation Association's Outstanding Achievement Award for the 4th time since 1983, and continues to be one of the most efficient, customer-friendly transportation systems in the world.

Checkout for services, fees and time schedules:
www.bigbluebus.com
www.metro.net

CONTINUE to the next chapter.