Recent Streetsblog LA posts about Metro Diaries

Erick Huerta checks his phone as he waits for the bus on Western Ave. at Exposition Blvd. At this point he has already taken one bus and one train and has been in transit for an hour and fifteen minutes. Sahra Sulaiman/Streetsblog L.A.

Area Mobility Advocate Exhausted by Bus, Makes Decision to Buy Car

By Sahra Sulaiman | Oct 23, 2015 | 84 Comments

What was I writing about, a woman wanted to know. She had heard me explain to a gentleman passenger on the bus that having a camera with me did not mean I was a stripper. I was a journalist. That news seemed to have disappointed him. He had fond memories of taking fifty bucks’ worth […]

Metro Diary: When Contractors Don’t Get the “Off-Limits” Memo on Harassment

By Sahra Sulaiman | Jun 2, 2015 | 6 Comments

“Are you riding the train…?” came the voice over my shoulder. It is perhaps one of the more terrible pick-up lines I have heard in a good while. Especially because I was standing on the Blue Line platform at Grand — a minimally furnished and poorly shaded station in the middle of a hectic stretch […]

Metro Diary: Every Day He’s Hustlin’

By Sahra Sulaiman | Feb 19, 2014 | 7 Comments

The well-dressed and good-looking young man with enormous glasses walked toward where I was standing at the front of the packed Blue Line car, gave me a wink and a smile, then turned around and began delivering his sales pitch for headphones to the passengers. Watching him work the car, I was reminded of how […]

Metro Diary: Three Trains, a Tourist, Some Eager-Beaver Sheriffs, and a Former Foster Child…All in the Space of an Hour

By Sahra Sulaiman | Feb 20, 2013 | 14 Comments

Whenever I travel in and out of LAX, I do my best to Metro my way there. It requires a forty-minute walk, three trains, and an airport shuttle ride for me to go one way. But, it’s cheap and, remarkably, it all goes down in less than two hours. And, it is never dull. For […]

Metro Diary: Planes, Trains, and Confusing Transfers with TAP

By Sahra Sulaiman | Sep 26, 2012 | 33 Comments

“Do you need any help?” I asked the tall Russian guy. He was making a valiant effort to look nonchalant as he shifted his gaze back and forth between the Metro rail map at the Aviation/LAX stop of the Green Line and the directions printed out in his hand. He needed to get to Hollywood […]

Metro Diary: Getting Harassed by THAT Guy

By Sahra Sulaiman | Jun 7, 2012 | 50 Comments

AS A FEMALE WHO tends to move unaccompanied through the city by bike or on foot, I get harassed. A lot. Several times a day. Every day. As in, I often can’t make a move in public without someone reminding me I have lady parts and/or offering to service them. The intrusions range from hilarious […]

Show More Stories