Boston-based Miles in Transit (YouTube, Twitter) touched down at LAX early Friday morning, then spent three days riding as many different L.A. County transit systems as possible before flying out late Sunday.
Miles aimed to ride 45 different bus systems, and he managed 40. He attempted to ride all the transit operators shown on Metro's transit map - from Metro to Antelope Valley Transit to Palos Verdes Peninsula Transit to Foothill Transit to Cudahy Area Rapid Transit - and everything in between.
L.A. transit nerds will probably enjoy spending some time reading through the visitor's lengthy live Twitter thread recapping three days of made and missed connections. Below are a couple highlights.
✅ Baldwin Park Transit 2/45
— Miles in Transit (@milesintransit1) June 7, 2024
On my Pumpkin Line bus! Fasten your seatbelts, kids! Also I thought this was a cash only system but there was a TAP reader...it just didn't work. pic.twitter.com/lYHgjH8HqJ
✅ Long Beach Transit 13/45
— Miles in Transit (@milesintransit1) June 7, 2024
Oh my God. It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. A real bus! Real-time tracking! A genuinely fantastic interior! Sure, the frequencies are bad and inconsistent, but...I'm just so happy to be on a REAL BUS THAT EXISTS. pic.twitter.com/UnpJGSQRxG
✅ Lynwood Breeze 22/45
— Miles in Transit (@milesintransit1) June 8, 2024
An unmarked white minibus! The fare was 25 cents and there's no farebox, just a little ziplock bag...maybe this isn't one of their usual buses and that's why it wasn't tracking? pic.twitter.com/hqUOF0mLUO
SBLA messaged with Miles in Transit today. While he expressed quite a few criticisms of various corners of L.A. County transit, his broad assessment was positive:
Overall L.A.'s transit is genuinely good, especially for a city with such tough geography for transit! L.A. Metro's frequent network is really impressive, and at least in my experience, their buses tended to run remarkably on time given how long and trafficked the the routes are!
SBLA looks forward to watching and sharing the full video when Miles in Transit posts it.
