You are obviously not an American and could hardly speak English. So Calif actually had decent public transportation dependng on where you live. Of course they couldn't gain enough ridership or everywhere. I have the most horror commute story in 24/7 traffic when I was living in So. Calif. in 2006 I started a new job in 2006. I lived in Huntington Beach and started a new job in Chatsworth; 66 miles away. NOTE: I drove to work the first week. It took me 1:15 hour at 5:30 A.M. and 3 hours at 5:30 P.M. on a good day. I would leave my house at 4:15 A.M. and drove 15 minutes to downtown Long Beach to take the 4:45 A.M. Metro Blue Line. The Blue Line arrived at 7th St. in downtown L..A. at 5:30 AM. Then I took the Red Line and arrived in North Hollywood Universal City at 5:55 AM. Then I took the bus for 70 minutes, finally arrived in front of my company building at 7:10 A.M. I worked a 10 hour day (20 minutes lunch) , and reversed the direction at 5:30 P.M. at night and arrived home at 8:30 PM. Total commute: 6 hour+

LA has invested a lot in their transit system. Unfortunately, they’re up against decades of poor land use and housing decisions. Also, the quality of a trip is impacted by larger social failures, like homelessness, drug abuse, and mental health problems.

There was a news segment I saw a while ago about a math teacher in LA receiving a car as a gift after he’s been commuting by public transit. 2 hours to work and 2 hours back home. His students wanted to surprise him by low-key raising money to buy him a used car, but they raised more than enough money. So instead they bought him a brand new car with insurance and gas for a year. There are countless of stories on how people received car donations. It’s a beautiful thing and sad at the same time. This shows how car-dependent our country has become over the years. And it didn’t used to be that way, but there’s a long history as to why and how.

Although I agree that LA could use a major upgrade in public transit, you also traveled +30 miles across the county. For reference, I live in New York City, which has great public transportation, and chose a destination with the same distance at it was still a 1.5hr trip according to google and that’s taking 2 trains. This trip is definitely an extreme outlier.

The city officials from different neighborhoods should ride the trains the entire lines themselves to have a first hand experience on what the public is facing on a daily basis.

The problem is the USA focuses on making public transportation cheap instead of good. It’s seen as charity for poor people that can’t afford a car. Raise fare prices so you can have GOOD service that’s better than driving, then offer a discount for poor people. look at the NYC metro, where you have commuter railroads and subways. The cost of a simpler trip would be 5 times more expensive, but it takes the same amount of time as driving, and still costs a little less than driving.

It is worth noting that Los Angeles is building tons of new transit, with one goal to get lots of it open before the 2028 Summer Olympics (although there will be more to come afterwards as well). Extending the purple line is one such project.

"I'm in Westwood... I'm going to get to the San Gabriel valley by public transit." and that's all I needed to hear. (I did this commute daily for an entire summer. About 2.5 hours each way lol.)

As an Angeleno, I would not even dare to make that long of a trip between the Westside and SGV, so you're a brave soul. But what I've noticed in me personally as a transit enthusiast and urbanist as well as other urbanists I know in LA is that if you are going to take public transport, you would most likely just park your car at a train stop and go where you need to go if it's walking distance from another stop. (i.e. Pasadena, Culver City, or Santa Monica) So yeah, it's really hard to live without a car here. Regardless, great and insightful video! Glad you made it out alive.

I recently had to go to Los Angeles to attend a meeting in Glendale. I have experience navigating public transit systems, having been spoiled by the Seoul Metropolitan Area's transit system, and I briefly considered using public transit to get to Glendale to save on rental car and parking fees. I also wanted to stop by Koreatown and Burbank to do some sightseeing The route that Google Maps suggested from LAX to Glendale was about 2 hours and 20 minutes and involved transfers between four bus or train lines. I decided to just rent the car and deal with the traffic and parking. Even taking those into account, I still saved at least an hour of time. The implied message here is that public transit is only for the poor or those who really don't value their time.

I'm from Europe, don't own a car, rely myself fully on the public trasport. Always wondered why people in America don't use more public transport, now I know why 🤣 Everything, even the buses, felt hella sketchy. The undergroud is like a completely different world compared with the one from the outside, trains and stations empty, like from some apocalyptic movie, the only people that are there are the weirdest individuals that you don't wanna meet or share space with. The buses were better, but still hella weird. The bus hub was extremely empty, no people. In my country, bus hubs tend to be busy, buses coming and going every other minute, people everywhere, I'm mean, that's how a "hub" should look like, right? I would be scared to wait at the bus hub that was presented in the video, waiting around 23 minutes for a bus with nobody around ... at a bus hub!!! 🤣 I would just think that I'm at the wrong spot the whole time. Don't know what to write next, I'm speechless. When I visit LA, I need to check this out on my own! With a bodyguard though.

The BART Metro in the Bay Area also has major problems with safety as well, especially the San Francisco Civic Center station. Although it’s getting better with police onboard some of the trains, it’s not nearly as safe as other systems around the globe. Hopefully there’s a better solution for these Californian transit systems. Feeling safe while onboard would certainly increase ridership 😅.

To be fair, LA is significantly larger than other cities. I grew up in the LA suburbs, and as soon as I received my first big boy job, I commuted on the Metrolink train to DTLA, which took about 45 minutes one way; I was about 30+ miles away from downtown LA. It was a pleasant experience, and I would never drive into downtown via a car. I felt my biological age would increase faster than my chronological age due to the stressors of being in a car for many hours. Riding the Metrolink also helped my career since I had free time to read, complete extra work, or network with other commuters working around the downtown area.

I used to drive 9 miles to work in LA. The one-way drive took about 30 minutes, maybe a few minutes longer on the return home in the afternoon. In an effort to promote ride-sharing or using public transportation, my employer came up with alternative plans for all employees. Taking public transportation would require 2 bus transfers, and the trip would take at least 90 minutes. Because public transportation was so inefficient, I kept driving my car to work. I just didn't have 2 extra hours a day to spend getting to and from work.

I'm with you that NYC subway has a vibe to it, but LA metro is downright bizarre. I remember it being impossible to even find a station in literal downtown LA and felt like I entered an abandoned warehouse when I did find it. My first morning after arriving in Union station, I also remember being greeted by a homeless dude casually sweeping the sidewalk outside of his tent like it was nothing lol

Hey thanks for featuring the 626, where I'm from, and the LA Metro! As someone who's also traveled on many metro systems, whenever I come back to LA and the 626, I'm always very disappointed at how lackluster and unreliable it is. For example, I take the J Line to DTLA often and I really like this BRT-ish bus line, but I always have to drive to El Monte Station first, which really shows the lack of last mile access to the station (and many other LA Metro stations). I'm glad that you were able to safely get out of that situation on the subway. I also experience that occasionally whenever I ride the subway (red/purple line). I wish that metro would take safely there much more seriously because these are the things that make people not want to try out public transport in LA. LA has so much potential to be a good transit and bike city, but with the politics, suburban sprawl, and homelessness problem, there are so many hurdles to overcome to get there. Thank you for making this video! Good transit is much needed in LA and your video highlights many of the problems and potential that the LA Meteo has!

i swear the US is so dystopian these days

Im a regular metro rider (Boston, NYC).... I've ridden LA metro and that was one of the few times I have ever felt truly unsafe & uncomfortable on a metro system. Even when riding Philadelphia's MFL branch through Kensington (neighborhood has a reputation for the unfortunate drug epidemic) didn't give me nearly as much discomfort as riding the purple line in LA. It wasn't even just one bad experience either. Your video summed up pretty much every time I got on the metro in LA. (I will admit that the bus system in LA feels quite nicer though) That system needs a lot of help and proper investment if they want more people to ride it. Not to mention, 15 minute frequencies for a subway system is absolutely horrific, especially for a line that doesn't have that many stops. It doesn't matter if it's a weekday or weekend, those trains need to be operating on much shorter headways.

Great video. It's certainly *possible* to use public transit in LA, but it's not always enjoyable. LA definitely doesn't have the worst public transit but for the size it really needs to do better. Safety is definitely a big concern on Metro, but unfortunately it's just a representation of the city as a whole. Metro hasn't done enough in terms of safety but the city is also responsible for the problems on Metro. I've heard that they are planning to start Metro's own police department because LAPD and other police departments aren't really doing anything to keep people safe. If Metro is at the very least clean and safe, some people will choose it over driving to save the hassle of having to park, get stuck in traffic, etc even if it is a little slower. There's certainly a lot of potential for public transit in LA and I really hope things get better. In the meantime, San Francisco has pretty good pubic transit (SF itself, not the suburbs around the Bay Area). BART and Muni are both pretty safe but Muni also suffers from some problems LA Metro has such as a really slow speed. The average speed is actually slower than Metro but at least SF is a really small city. Also, SF was able to reject many freeway projects so the city is still really walkable and therefore the public transit is pretty good. BART is actually pretty nice now, with new trains, new/renovated stations, more police, more cleaning, and overall safe, fast, and clean.

I travelled around the USA 4 years ago and used public transport in most cities. The best systems I encountered were New York and San Fan Ciso. Overall I was not impressed. Busses and trains were dirty and I also encountered a lost of anti social behaviour.

When I was young, i spent 12 months backpacking around the world. As an Australian, LA was my last stop. Asia, Middle East, Europe, South America & the rest of America down. Got to LA, stayed in San Pedro at a hostel, after 2 days of public transport, I gave up. Stayed at the hostel rest of my trip. It was useless, frustrating, disjointed & as you did I felt unsafe on it. Honestly LA public transport was the only public transport I felt unsafe on compared to an other I’ve been on around the world. For the reason I’d never go back to LA (other than passing through the airport, as I will later in the year)

The current situation in LA is pretty depressing and sad because LA could easily be a world class city for alternative transportation. It literally has some of the best year round weather in the country. However, due to the expensive cost of living and high unemployment combined with the insane car centred infrastructure, it’s easy to see why the transit in LA is so unpopular.

As a New Yorker, I realized how good we have it here. LA’s transportation was horrible. The wait times were incredibly long, stations were completely filthy, and 90% of the passengers were homeless and druggies completely zoned out

That fact that this is not even that bad compared to some us cities mainly in places like texas or some mid sized cities mainly sunbelt cities but including some rustbelt cities. The rust belt is kinda hit or miss with public transit some are good some are putrid but they all tend to be more walkable since they got big before cars Chicago the twin cities an Milwuakee are pretty good and decently affordable.

Let me also add, its amazing how cavernous and huge they built the red/purple lines of the LA Metro but it looks so deserted and dilapidated, even during rush hour, despite being one of the newer metros built in the past 30 years (I rode the line in 2016 and 2019, well before the pandemic).

Lived in LA county for 10 years. Seeing the map at 1:10 had me howling. My friends and i, naively, went to six flags from around LACMA once. Needless to say we spent more time on the buses than at the park.

Great video, I've never seen an on-the-ground, real-life exposition of the LA transportation system. Even as a transit-loving person like yourself, I don't think I would use it if I went there. The stations and vehicles are dark, utilitarian spaces that would make any normal person uncomfortable. Btw, what kind of camera do you use? I'm in awe of the video quality and the fact that it doesn't seem to bother anyone!

Nice video and observations. Subscribed. Good luck with your channel. Looking forward to more content in the future

Great video. I bike and use transit in LA. I love being car free and there are some good options to get around, but we starve metro and bike infrastructure of funds, over police, and don't have the popular support needed to demand better metro service and multimodal transit. Glad to see you're making urbanist videos. Subscribed!

Los Angeles used to have one of the largest tram/streetcar networks in the world. Unfortunately, they've been torn up and replaced by buses. Honestly, unless you live or work strictly in DTLA, I feel like the public transport network serves very little reliability or relevance to ordinary Angelenos.

The only thing in LA Metro that I would always consider avoiding are the B-Red and the D-Purple lines. Exactly what you captured is a reason for it. I'm still impressed to this day after using it that LA County's public transport will take you places I would never imagine possible if you got the time for it.

the point that you made that transit should be time-competitive with the car is very correct. LA has sprawl working against it so it should be building out high speed regional rail lines to act as trunk routes, akin to an S-bahn system. A grid network of high-frequency buses can then feed into these stations. LA is building a lot of transit but it isn't going to be the right type of transit to get people on the rails.

The more people who use the train, the safer you will feel, but it looks like no one is really using the subway system around LA, and there’s little incentive for them to do so.

I did the same thing while in L.A. I went from LAX to Hollywood Blvd. The trip took about two hours. About the same amount of time it took you. Had to get a hotel shuttle to the airport, then catch a bus to a light rail station, then transfer to the subway.

Great review! I was a bit worried that you wouldn't get out of that metro without "incident", glad you made it out unharmed.

I liked the authenticity of this public transportation video. I could see myself doing something similar and coming to the same conclusions as you. But I wouldn't have actually gone on such an adventure. There's enough information online to know better than to do what you did. Instead, I would have settled for Indonesian food in Westwood or Santa Monica or tried to make my own food at home. Still, I appreciate you documenting your experience. It was definitely worthwhile to see what it's like firsthand. Thanks again for doing this.

I used to travel to Cal State L.A. by the Metro Rail and by Bus from 1998 to 2001 And you hit everything you said, right on the money! It is a zoo using public transportation in Los Angeles. I would only use public transportation as a last resort. The video you've made was an excellent source how public transportation operates. Thank you sharing this video.

I use the LA metro frequently. Just ignore the high people, put on some music on Airpods, and chill. There is nothing to worry about. I have seen similar stuff in other places as well like NYC and Paris. The only thing is that the low ridership makes it creepier in LA.

They don't develop a transit oriented development like Hong Kong or other Asian country. I am pretty sure the public transport in LA would be useful if they build apartments and shops right by the train/subway/light rail stations. If I have to drive from my house to the station, and find a way to go to work/shop from a station, why don't I just drive directly there?

The last few times I was in LA I took the metro trains and had the same experience. I felt like I was in a moving mental institution. Everyone around me was crazy. At one time it wasn't quite as bad. It used to be just mainly working class Latino people who were quiet and minded their business. But now it seems like a bunch of insane and aggressive people just hanging out on the trains. Cannot recommend anybody take those trains unless you a pretty big guy who can fight.

Awesome video. Please tell me you Ubered back to Westwood haha. I always say that LA could be the greatest city on earth if they would just fix their infrastructure. I’ve taken the bus and metro a few times here and they weren’t great experiences. Like you mentioned, the biggest issues are the slow frequency and safety. The sad reality is that taking the metro in LA makes you feel poor, and shockingly, people don’t like feeling poor. I know they’re expanding the metro (which is great!) but until they fix the safety and cleanliness issue, people simply won’t ride it.

The Bart system in the San Francisco Bay Area and the other transport services there are way better than than la’s public transport. You should do a review on that too.

This is why I, a transportation enthusiast, don’t use public transportation in the USA, it’s dangerous and uncomfortable. Officials need to look at the bigger picture, no matter how much you spend on lines and other things, the ridership will still be low. You could have the best stations and trains, but if I have a risk of getting stabbed by some maniac or have to be in the same space with people high off drugs, most won’t ride. There is a reason why there is a negative stigma towards public transportation in the USA, it’s being used a mental asylum on wheels, not a safe and efficient means to get from point A to B, even though it has that potential if things were cleaned up.

When I last visited LA in ~2013, the Expo was still being built to Santa Monica where I was staying, and I took a bus down Olympic to Culver City. That was actually pretty OK. It was not very fast, I seem to recall about an hour, but for all-day trips it was doable. The Bay Area does better mostly by being more compact with a few corridors that contain nearly all the destinations: eastern SF down the Peninsula, and then from Downtown SJ up along the East Bay. Once you look at the details all the patchiness becomes obvious: depending on definition between 23 and 151 different transit agencies, missing last miles, and other papercuts. I will say that the introduction of Baywheels bikeshare has made a difference for me by fixing up a few of the papercuts - in areas that are covered, you can bike to a BART stop, take the train over, then bike to the destination without planning the logistics in advance. It makes a very big difference that can cut some trips from "90 minutes" to "under an hour". Most of the problem with safety or perceptions thereof is that the US has opted to define "sweeping problems under the rug" as "sweeping them anywhere that isn't a privately-owned space". This has impacted the coastal cities more heavily and visibly, but it truly is everywhere in the country. You can't even get away from it by being in a car: someone will lose their mind and wander into traffic.

Interesting video, a couple things as an LA native. 1. The trip is not reflective of a realistic or reasonably trip a real angelino would take. Ain’t no body going from Westwood all the way to temple city. This trip is super long and would be similar to going from Staten Island to the Bronx (even in Ny that trip still sucks) 2. Even with the best public transportation systems, other modes of transport are needed or even better bike, scooter, car etc . 3. Scariest train ride of your life is a little dramatic. I agree the people were acting weird but it doesn’t appear anyone approached you, touched you, or even turned their attention to you. We tend to stigmatize homeless, substance abuse, etc. with violence? Which is not always true.

good video, As someone who uses public transit every day, unhouse people are not really a problem to me. I can definitely understand the nervousness. I think we have been conditioned to really look down on homeless people. Homelessness is a social issue that has multiple layers on it. if people are destroying things, security should do something. but it is a public area so people will be there

3-4 times as long as driving is pretty standard in Los Angeles. This is a remarkably accurate depiction.

Thanks a lot for uploading content like this since documentation of the actual quality and experience of taking certain public transit is rare and the actual ride isn't documented much on people's channels. I'd much rather see this than hear someone say "this is good and this is bad." Thanks.

I never felt too worried or anything on the subway here; I even brought my scooter with me (to solve the last mile problem) on the same train you took no problem. That being said, I 100% see the issue people have with the train and even though I live about a 10min or so walk from the nearest station to me (civic center where you got off) I'll choose to drive basically every time even when the train is conveinent and I absolutely dread driving. Only time I definitely take the train is for USC games be it football or basketball, to BMO for LAFC games, or to the Cryp for Laker games. The expo line is so convenient and the regional connector will basically make it a no brainer for me. Other than the expo line last time I went to an Angels game I took the train and that was a good experience. I also did park and ride for a Rams game last year and that was fine too. I even took public transportation from LAX to my house last time I was there b/c I didn't wanna pay $80 for an Uber lol. That wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be and if I don't have lots of luggage I'll probs do that again instead of paying exorbitant fees for parking or spending at least $80 on good days for uber round trip. That trip from the airport consisted of connecting with a transfer bus to the green line, then taking another bus to transfer to the K line, then the K line to the E line, E line to the Red line, and then a walk home. Could've just done flyaway for $10 and an $8 uber home but eh I'm a simp for trains and wanted to check out the K line (awesome btw) and $2 was a hell of a price. Once that LAX Metro connector finishes up I might even make the trip with real luggage. That being said I wouldn't even listen to music on the subway let alone record lol I'm a Democrat myself but LA needs to stop listening to some of these crazy super left leaning folks and put some damn cops on the trains and in the stations and actually criminalize the shit we're seeing. Can't just let it go unpunished and basically waste billions of dollars in public funds. Also even easier to do would be to implement a better cleaning and lighting program. That'd go a long way to making the trains and stations feel safer too.

I actually make a similar trip very frequently since I live in the SGV! For me I will use my electric skateboard to ride from UCLA to the Westwood E line station then take that all the way to 7th St Metro Centre, then I just ride my e board to the L line station through downtown (faster than taking the subway). If you do plan on taking more frequent transit trips, I'd suggest getting an e skate or e scooter. Honestly last mile transportation is CRITICAL with how sparse LA's transit and bus stations can get. My transit time from UCLA to SGV area is usually around 1.5 hours and I'm a bit closer than Temple City, so whether sharing the road with the abhorrent LA drivers is worth saving an extra 20-30 minutes is up to you haha. Cheers!

you know our transit system sucks when no part of it connects LAX to downtown. although thats finally changing soon but it is very unfortunate how unsafe it feels to use the metro, especially at night

I enjoyed this video -- so detailed and informative! I disagree with the term "useless." Usefulness is relative. I'm quite sure LA-area transit is useful to people traveling from one well-served area to another. There just aren't enough of those yet. Any transit system that needs to overcome approximately 75 years of complete car domination across a region that spans about 50 miles in every direction will take a long time to serve the "long tail" of all possible journeys. On the issue of the people you saw on the train, I remember a similarly disturbing trip down Wilshire 40 years ago on an RTD bus (no subway then), also on a Sunday morning. This is true in so many cities. I suspect that buses and trains filled with ordinary citizens on Sunday mornings is the final stage of transit maturity. Hope LA gets there soon.

How strange I got your video recommended today because I’m in LA at the moment as part of a U.S. rail tour with the teen (aka Frog). We started at Riverside this morning and bought a Metrolink weekend day pass on the advice of the security guy at Riverside. That not only got us to Union Station but essentially gave us free transport round the city. We travelled to Venice beach and are staying near civic centre station. First thoughts: The buses are frequent and on time. They’re not the newest or most comfortable but they’re ok. The purple line feels old and a bit creepy - the lighting could be improved a lot! We also took the E line which was very good indeed - clean, bright and fast. Is it newer than the others? An Uber to Venice beach and back would have cost about $60 but would have taken less than half the time.

man be serious for real think of people who can’t afford a car before you say a system is useless like your criticisms ARE valid safety and time in transit ARE issues but doubling down on the take that it is useless just because it was inconvenient for you doesn’t make it actually useless

I grew up riding the Washington DC subway (Metro) as well as the old trams in Boston and was completely turned off by the public safety issues and design of LA’s Metro the first time I used it. I had high expectations, but sadly due to my experience I prefer driving whenever I visit LA. I do support LA Metro’s expansion and hope increased ridership with the new lines will make the trains safer. Hard to believe you’ll be able to take a one seat ride from San Dimas / Glendora to Long Beach later this year. That’s an insanely long line.

I went to LA back in 2019 and there was one time I had to go to Santa Monica where I was supposed to do a photo shoot yet the model flaked out. I wanted to return back to my hotel but the uber was expensive and the Expo Line had too many stops. I took the 704 and while it had stops, it was much quicker than the regular 4 but a city like LA needs to have express tracks to supplement the local trains and also to move people faster than the freeways. Also, the red/purple line at times felt deserted, even during rush hour. My first time in LA back in 2016 I saw someone try and dance on the subway car like its done in NYC but it just doesn’t work. However, when I went to the airport for my flight home, instead of taking an uber I took the red/purple line from Metro Center to Union Station and hopped on the Flyaway bus saving me some serious money.

I took this same LA Metro line in 2007. I was born in North Hollywood in 1954 and lived in the Valley until 1983. I'm in St. Louis now. When I got on the train downtown it was empty except me and this guy who was running up and down the next train car screaming at the top of his voice. I sometimes take the subway that St. Louis has, and there never has been a problem except once, when it was just teenagers goofing around.

Those folks peeling the stickers off were probably just kinda weird. I live in Philly and I'll be honest I have seen significantly weirder shit go down on the Market-Frankford Line. They probably don't mean any real harm aside from the obviously irritating behavior of holding the train door open. That shit wouldn't fly where I live

Hi. Thank you so much for making this video and showing the most important aspect of a transport system, which is safety. I'll be traveling to LA next week, and I was hoping I'd get by using the trains. After watching this video and reading some comments, I've decided to change my transportation options. Thanks again! 🙏 Do you have an external mic to record the audio, or is it straight from the S23 Ultra?

Great video, thank you

I live in Chicago and it’s quite easy to get around the city without a car. Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) covers much more of the city than LA’s transit system and is way more frequent than LA’s. It does have its problems, like what you experienced on the Purple Line is also a pretty common occurrence on the CTA and a lot of the stations are old and pretty dirty. CTA frequency is pretty good. Most trains and busses run every five minutes during rush hour and every 10 minutes off peak which is pretty good by North American standards. I mean by European or Japanese standards, that’s not that great, but the CTA is still frequent enough where you can still get around easily just by using public transit. LA’s is just, well… marginal at best. LA is hosting the Olympics in 2028 so I kinda do expect their public transportation system will get better for the Olympics, but yeah, it’s just not great. I mean I don’t think it’s as bad as Houston’s but it’s still pretty bad

Good video. Traversing 50 km from one side of a major metro to the other in 2+ hours seems pretty typical to me if the start and end are random and not both near a train station. Like say from Queens College to Paterson, NJ. Or somewhere in SE London to somewhere in NW London.

I agree with this. I used to take the blue line from LB to DTLA for work right when the pandemic was starting. I used to see people get robbed, two stabbings, people shooting up and smoking meth, vomit, piss, blood you name it. I used to live in NY and never felt like I was in actual danger on any public transport there. Hell, just two weeks ago there were three stabbings on the platform in broad daylight with people just trying to get to work. I swore off public transport after going through it, it's quite dangerous. Not to mention takes FOREVER to get anywhere. Great Video!

There’s lots of reasons why people would choose to ride public transit over driving in LA and many people do as a way of life. For one it’s much cheaper than driving and maintaining a car. Some people have no choice in this matter. Also, it’s a lot more convenient than finding a parking spot for certain locations in the city like downtown or near museums or shopping districts. It’s actually very dependable if you live in the grid of LA proper, especially for shorter trips. I’ll grant you it can be a bit sketchy, especially the train, but it is convenient and very usable.

Opinion: I think that the issue of safety can be solved by “simply” making public transit a real viable option to driving; as in a true competitor to cars. Once people start to use Metro in large volumes these trains will be filled with eyeballs that will deter undesirable actions, (I think the term is “visual security”?) much like how a walkable area is safer than a dark alley. That said, transit security (not police) should help. It’s hard to start this aforementioned virtuous transit cycle if no one wants to use an unsafe Metro system.

If LA was smart they’d build the public metro network to cover LA well like NYC does. They’d build a well connected bus network that links to those metro stations to complement it too. Are the miles long car jams not enough to make this happen?

Great videos :)

Just the idea of you heading from Westwood to San Gabriel is hilarious

LA is just a crazy place and i dont think id use public transport there

I have never felt unsafe on the trains in KitaKyushu, and the only time I would have to wait 15 minutes or more if it was really late or it was a local train going somewhere weird. Having to wait 23 minutes at noon on a sunday is insane.

Although this might just be a low-volume time of day, the train and two of the buses had very few passengers, and that last bus terminal was virtually empty. Safety on the train is an issue, and they might increase the bus frequency if that would improve ridership. I can see that at least in this instance, public transport in LA is dysfunctional!

Interesting test and a very valid experiment. You should run for public office for The Los Angeles Transportation Commissioner. That would be a personal challenge. Thank you, that was fun to watch and an interesting journey through a city and county I love. - Your English is excellent by the way with a nice British twist. G.

I think some of the commentors are slightly missing the mark. This may seem like an odd origin and destination pairing, but in an optimal system, any potential pairing of popular locations should be relatively easy to access. The problem in the U.S. is that the transit network is normally routed through central business districts and not from one edge city to another even though these are where most people shop and work. It is most certainly bad land use that things are so spread out to begin with, but that is more the reason to fix the transit network.

I take public transit everywhere and whenever I take longer trips than my usual commute and it’s pretty doable. It 100 percent should be better but it definitely could be worse!!

Thanks for this great informational video! Me and a friend are going to LA in october and I've never been to the US or such a major city before(Except London and Amsterdam). Would you say public transit like the metro line to Santa Monica feels safe? Is it sketchy at night? We'll probably stay in Hollywood, would be nice not to have to Uber if we wanna go to ex Santa Monica etc.

Great video and I stayed in downtown Los Angeles for a few days, about two weeks ago - as you noted, yikes on the metro (especially the purple and red line) - Friday was not so bad, when I went one stop from Union station but Saturday there were a lot of unhoused engaging in odd behavior (did not feel safe) but the bus system was quite good, for getting around in the area - I've ridden trains in other countries and felt much safer.

Wow! I'm an LA resident, and I did not know about the TAP APP.😅 That would definitely come in handy when I want to add funds or buy a pass but do not want to pay for the card. I'm glad I watched this video. I don't take the bus often, but do when my car is in the shop.

Nyc is really the only city in the USA and maybe a bit of the nj suburbs, that have public transport figured out.

Oh, one other thing. The subway cars are due to be replaced very soon, probably when the first part of the purple line extension opens. I believe the current ones are original to when the system opened in the 1990s and are therefore a bit dingy.

We need a sequel where you return home after your lunch.😁

Thanks for sharing your experience. I have had similar experiences on the metro trains basically every time I use it. They are always people with mental issues boarding the train and it just feels unsafe because they are unpredictable. However the busses are almost completely different and an article I recently read talked about one thing that fights things like these and crimes - ridership. Busses have less issues like these because there are way more people using it than trains. I agree because I feel safe on a bus. There are homeless and mentally illed people who get on the busses too, but it feels safer with other passengers.

You said that you've been all over the country, after this, I went to go watch the New York video. Turns out this is you're only video. It's a very decent video, that still supports my opinion on LA transit. San Fransisco always topped LA.

Laughs in Delhi metro, Singapore metro, Hong-Kong mtr, entire Japanese network, Taipei subway, Seoul subway, entire Chinese network

they recently expanded the E line to connect across downtown - you can go to LA union station with a pretty easy transfer which makes it a lot simpler to make this journey

Yeah LA is an absolute mess but the problem is that we’ve been this way for so damn long that we’re almost permanently set up like this. Of course change is possible and should occur, but it’s gonna take a HELL of a lot

It really sucks that LA’s transit is just so bad. Come to San Francisco and ride Muni Metro! Curious your thoughts. Both in CA. Miles different transit systems.

It was funny seeing the apartment I live in be in your intro footage. Im guessing you are also a ucla student.

An Australian urbanist channel? Subbed!

It's so tragic how Los Angeles accomplished so little with so much.

I saw a guy once on the subway to dtla who had his arm, from mid forearm to fingertip, just rotting off. It was like the prosthetic makeup they use in zombie movies. Got off the next stop

I'm also a college student based in SoCal (but not LA) and visit LA frequently using public transit. I'm from Asia and I'm used to the type of transit in Asia. I appreciate you doing this kind of video, but there are some points I couldn't agree on. First I'll agree on that public transit in LA SUCKS, but there's more to it. 1.The particular trip you chose was very much an outlier. 1)It's a Sunday MORNING trip. Weekend rides means there's no commuters and nobody in LA travels weekend morning. 2) The trip (start-destination) is also an outlier. Nobody takes regular trips between Westwood and Temple City, not even the ones with cars. Typically, people living in Westwood/Beverly Hills go to Ktown for food and entertainment, which would be your first bus ride and it was decent. People going to Temple City would be mostly from areas east of LA. 3)The east part of LA is the area with the worst transit coverage and service. People living there are known to be the most car dependent ones. Where as the situation on the west/south (mostly the west) side of LA is much better. A good example is that LA as a whole is not a city, it's an area. On the west side their are smaller sectors where it feels like a city, such as Ktown, Beverly Hills/Westwood, Santa Monica, Culver CIty, etc. On the east side, it's really hard to name any of them. SO, For a fair assessment of the system, I would recommend you taking another trip weekday afternoon (but not at night) from UCLA to downtown area, which covers a bus ride and a train ride. That would be a lot different. 2. Safety is a problem, but your experience is still particularly bad. Those people peeling off some stickers are definitely concerning but I've never seen any of those behaviors in my 20+ times riding the Metro subway. Perhaps you shouldn't change cars from the first one you got on. At 5:35, I don't know why some dudes wearing hoodie and pushing a bike seems like a problem to you. If there is more, please elaborate with captions. Personally, I wouldn't change to another car because at least there are other "normal" passengers such as that Hispanic lady. Of course, those are not regular standards of transit car environment when compared to Europe or Asia but I've seen much worse in the US. I've taken transit in many North American cities I've visited: LA, NYC, Boston, Seattle, Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, and most recently Chicago. Therefore I can tell you there are definitely much worse transit in the US in terms of safety. In Chicago metro, you'll see people literally smoking weeds in train cars and peeing at the end of cars. And there's not just one or two of them. They're in groups/bunches. You almost feel like they are in gangs where as all you get in LA metro is mostly just homeless people. Yah it feels unpleasing but they are unarmed and won't hurt you. Yet it's still mostly tolerable/acceptable because there are enough of other normal passengers in the train. So again it goes back to the ridership problem which will be improved if you pick to use the system at a better time. Again, I don't disagree it's unsafe, but picking on LA for this problem is rather unfair. It's the US. If you choose to come, then get used to it. Overall, I would say public transit in LA is usable, given that you use it in a way it's designed to be used. Transit systems anywhere in the US are not designed to serve 80% of the population. It's only there to provide an option for those who need it or prefers it over the other restraints of driving (parking fees, congestion, or not having a car/license) and are willing to accept some of the uncomfortable parts of the services. If a guy wants to commute with transit, it's possible to keep it under/around an hour. But he'll need to choose where he lives, which should be close to stations and require few transfers to his destination. For people who don't use transit regularly, it's not that easy to simulate the routine of those who do just be taking a random ride. I've taken transit in LA since 2018 and after COVID, I can see a rise in ridership. My experience with LA's transit system has been mostly positive. They've allowed me to explore many places, visit my friends and take GRE tests in different parts of LA without resorting to rent a car, which could easily be $100 per day especially for an under 25 driver. They've got a long way to go but things are getting better. I'm willing to be encouraging and optimistic. And even there are so many problems, it's not the transit people to blame. It's the city. As I said in many other replies, it's a social problem, not a transit problem. Maybe you've just chosen the wrong city to live in. If you choose to live in LA and need to use the transit, use the transit!

Thank you for the video ive been planning on taking the transits for a while since owning a car is so expensive here plus the rent

The Los Angeles metro system is projected to have 200 train stations by 2050. It should be a "satisfactory" system by then, compared to world standards. BART in San Francisco is underfunded and suffering crime problems. Service intervals are poor and there are only 50 stations in the network compared to the current 99 in Los Angeles. BART is bad for actual practicality. It doesn't work as a metro system because it was designed solely to bring commuters from the suburbs to downtown San Francisco and downtown Oakland. It's stations are often miles apart except for the downtown areas previously mentioned. It will hopefully become a better system but it's too different a system to compare it to the L.A. Metro.

The first bus you took comes every 7 minutes so I think you actually took the one before your scheduled one

I used the metro while visiting and found it quit useful. There was a station a block from my hotel and used it but that was during the pandemic and no one was there.

i never actually thought about how people get around LA, i assumed they just yawned and clicked their heels three times lol jk lovely video with very clear explanations of each transit system. cant wait to see what you cook up next

Um, I’m not so sure. HART bus in Tampa,FL had very bad schedule priority (my bus was 15+ mins late due to the fact the driver wanted a bathroom break lol)

Great video. And I thought transportation here in Melbourne, Australia was awful. This is horrendous for such a large city.

I've never really taken public transport, so sorry if this sounds dumb but how did you signal to the driver to stop? I didn't see any cords

I died a little inside when you said "half an hour bus ride away ... or a 10 minute drive"