A SPECIAL REPORT ON TRANSPORTATION : THE LONG WAY HOME : A Newsman Who Pursued His Story by Bus, 7 Hours From Diamond Bar to Costa Mesa and Back, Offers This Report

Ever wonder why more people don’t ride the bus to work?

Do they live too far from work to make bus travel practical?

Are buses really less convenient than automobiles?

Are bus fares a good bargain?

Can a person really be forced to ride the bus to work?

My editors answered that last question--they assigned me, a reporter, to ride from home to work and back again. You judge the rest.

For the purpose of this experiment, we begin at my home just across the Orange County line in Diamond Bar.

“Work” is The Times Orange County office in Costa Mesa, where editors told me the bus ride would be great fun. This may tell you something about editors.

The trips to work and home again began during what are called “peak traffic periods.” It all finally ended just in time for the last half hour of prime time television.

The entire excursion lasted about 7 hours--more than four times longer than by car. It may have been time-consuming, but it was also tedious.

Step One was to check out the veritable Bus Bible, the Orange County Transit District’s authoritative soft cover tome on the subject, the “Bus Book” ($1 at finer bookstores).

On Page 6, under the heading “How to Ride the Bus,” was this advice:

“When you are ready to catch your bus, you will need to go to your bus stop. . . . A bus stop is a special sign with a picture of a bus on it.”

I paused to let this sink in, then read on.

“If you are sitting on a bench, stand up when you see your bus coming.”

So informed, I telephoned to get route information from clerks at the Orange County Transit District and the Southern California Rapid Transit District, which serves the Diamond Bar area of Los Angeles County.

I am but one of more than 155,000 persons commuting daily from Los Angeles County to a job in Orange County. By the year 2010, those of us entering from surrounding counties will increase by 272%, according to people who calculate such things. The vast majority of us drive our own cars.

But on this day, one car was left in a Diamond Bar garage.

Well, actually, I cheated: My daughter drove me to the bus stop.

A surprising number of cars were on the road--surprising because it was still dark at 6:26 a.m.

The RTD’s Bus 490 rattled up to the curb right on time.

Six other commuters already were inside when a Times photographer and I climbed aboard. Five riders were sitting up. One was lying across a seat.

The driver demanded $1.90 (exact change only) for the 4-mile trip into Orange County and a transfer for the remaining 20 or so miles on a different bus to Costa Mesa.

Bus 490 moved into traffic and soon was southbound on the Orange Freeway. Then very quickly the bus was across the Orange County line and back on surface streets.

To reach Costa Mesa, the OCTD information clerk had advised, my next step should be to connect with OCTD’s most heavily traveled route, Bus 43, which would take me virtually to The Times’ doorstep with no further bus changes.

“You’re lucky,” the clerk had pointed out. “Because usually to get from one place to another in Orange County, you need to transfer. But not in this case.”

Bus 43 is scheduled to arrive at Birch Street and Flower Avenue in Brea at 6:41 a.m. It seemed simple enough.

The RTD bus was southbound on State College Boulevard when it stopped at Birch. But Flower is five blocks west of that corner. And it was already 6:41 a.m. I felt a tinge of panic.

“Don’t you go to the intersection of Birch and Flower? “ I asked.

“No,” the driver said.

“Well, does Bus 43 stop here?”

“I’ve never seen that one,” the driver said.

Now I felt a rush of panic.

We got off the bus, figuring it was better to stand on one of the streets we were looking for than sit on a bus going to who knows where.

Two women at a bus stop across the street allayed our fears. OCTD Bus 43 does stop at Birch and State College and should be by momentarily, they said.

One of them said she has taken the bus for only a few weeks, an experiment that began when her car was in the shop. She said her trip to Fullerton that used to take 15 minutes by car now takes about an hour by bus. She spoke of this as if it were a good thing.

The woman said she enjoys riding the bus but allowed that it may be inconvenient in rainy weather. There is no shelter at the Birch Street bus stop.

Bus 43 arrived just before 7 a.m., which the women said was right on time.

OCTD Bus 43 was more comfortable and cleaner than the RTD. Of course, it was not as comfortable nor as clean as my bed, which is where I normally can be found at 7 a.m. Already, I had been awake 2 hours.

The bus wended its way through Brea, Placentia and Fullerton.

If one of the attractions of bus riding is to avoid the drudgery of driving, one of the drawbacks is having the windows closed and sitting next to a woman wearing a sampling of a dime store’s entire perfume selection.

As many as 20 people rode Bus 43 at a time, none of them traveling far. Regardless how far they rode--on a route that OCTD officials say carries 10% of Orange County’s total bus traffic--each paid 80 cents or flashed a prepaid bus pass.

We might have made better time. But the driver occasionally stopped, apparently so as not to arrive anywhere too early. I could not remember ever doing this in my car.

One hour and 46 minutes into the journey, the bus rolled on schedule past Westminster Avenue on Harbor Boulevard in Garden Grove. It was 8:12 a.m., about the time I normally am pulling out of my garage in Diamond Bar.

The bus arrived at Harbor Boulevard and Sunflower Avenue at 8:30 a.m. The photographer and I trudged into our office half a block away at 8:35 a.m.

Had we taken my car, the trip would have lasted 45 minutes.

The bus trip had taken more than 2 hours.

The worst was yet to come.

The ride home, which I came to know as “The Bus Trip That Refused to End,” began at 5:34 p.m. One might assume I could backtrack on the same buses to return to Diamond Bar.

Never assume anything.

Bus 43 does return from Costa Mesa to Brea, but it doesn’t arrive in Brea until 7:36 p.m., more than an hour too late to catch the last direct RTD bus to Diamond Bar.

How then to get home?

“There is a way,” the RTD information operator had explained. “The trip would involve three RTD buses.”

Not good news.

“You would have to come down through Whittier,” she said.

Bad news.

But worse yet, the trip to work on two buses had taken 2 hours. The trip home--on four buses--would take nearly 5 hours.

Instead of a 5-minute drive on the Orange Freeway from Brea to Diamond Bar, my route home would start out in the wrong direction (never a good omen), then go west through La Habra, north through Whittier, east through Hacienda Heights. Then it would turn north, east and south through the City of Industry and east some more through Rowland Heights before finally arriving in Diamond Bar.

It can be windy, noisy and uncomfortable standing on a sidewalk during the evening rush hour. It was all these things when I set out on the bus at 5:34 p.m. at Sunflower Avenue and Harbor Boulevard.

I boarded Bus 43 A , which instead of veering northeast to Brea like Bus 43, shoots straight north to La Habra. About 25 people were on board, but only four people remained by the time I got off.

The trip up Harbor Boulevard to La Habra Boulevard, about 16 miles, took 1 1/2 hours, an average of about 10 m.p.h.

By the year 2010, experts predict, California freeways’ average speed of 35 m.p.h. will slow to 17--still faster than Bus 43A to La Habra.

Had I taken my car, I could have driven to Diamond Bar and back to the office in the time it took just to reach La Habra.

But the bus ride home had only begun.

I recalled a survey by the Orange County Transportation Commission last year in which nearly three times as many people rated the bus system “poor” (19%) as had rated it “excellent” (7%).

Bus 43A’s driver was an amiable woman who asked for 80 cents, which included a “free” transfer for the next bus. Through no fault of hers, the ride lurched along in bumper-to-bumper traffic, stopping at seemingly every corner as commuters shuttled on and off.

I had miles to go before I slept--and for that matter, before I ate.

Not so for the youngest of three children who boarded the bus midway through Santa Ana. The child’s mother plopped down next to me, immediately lifted her sweater and began to nurse her infant.

It had been dark for some time when the bus stopped at 7 p.m. at La Habra and Harbor boulevards in La Habra where I was to meet RTD Bus 470.

At this stop, there was a nip in the night air. The gusts from passing autos cut through clothing. I made a tactical error. I should have used the gas station restroom across the street when I had the opportunity. I didn’t for fear I would miss my bus, should it arrive early. It didn’t.

It was 7:54 p.m. when Bus 470 finally showed. The driver took the OCTD transfer but still wanted the full $1.10 fare and 25 cents for a transfer to the next bus.

Five people rode Bus 470 as it shook its way to Whittier Boulevard, rattling my kidneys. I hoped there would be a service station restroom open at Colima Avenue and Whittier Boulevard, where I had to catch another RTD bus.

Traffic had thinned out considerably when I arrived there at 8:04 p.m. I had plenty of time to freshen up in the service station restroom. RTD Bus 471 was due at 8:48 p.m.

The transfer got me aboard when Bus 471 arrived right on time at 8:48 p.m. Another quarter bought a transfer to the final leg of the route. That made my total round-trip travel cost $4.30, or $1.90 to get to work and $2.40 to get home.

Ahead was the trip through Hacienda Heights and the City of Industry to the Puente Hills Mall. At this mall, where stores had already closed, I formulated a theory for nighttime bus commuting: “Sitting on bus benches only makes a cold person colder; it is better to pace.”

It was 9:08 p.m. The final bus arrived at 10:01 p.m.

At 10:18 p.m.--4 hours and 44 minutes after I left the bus stop in Costa Mesa--RTD Bus 482 made its first stop in Diamond Bar, as close as it would get to my home. My destination was still beyond a steep range of hills.

I cheated again. I telephoned my wife, who came snickering to get me in the family car.

“I’m going to drive to work tomorrow,” I told her on the ride home.

Postscript: Beginning in February, 1989, OCTD Bus 43’s route will be changed, requiring yet another bus transfer for the Diamond Bar-to-Costa Mesa-and-back odyssey.

LANDSBAUM’S BUS TRIP ITINERARY

THE BREAKDOWN: Total time on buses: 4 hours 3 minutes Total time waiting for buses: 2 hours 55 minutes Total time at work: 9 hours (minus lunch) Normal auto round trip to work: 1 hour 30 minutes TO WORK: 6:26 a.m. Get on RTD Bus 490 at Grand Avenue and Diamond Bar Boulevard, Diamond Bar 6:41 a.m. Get off RTD Bus 490 at Birch Street and State College Boulevard, Brea. 7:00 a.m. Get on OCTD Bus 43. 8:30 a.m. Get off OCTD Bus 43 at Harbor Boulevard and Sunflower Avenue., Costa Mesa. 8:35 a.m. Walk into The Times offices at 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa. 8:35 - 5:30 p.m. Kill time working. TO HOME: 5:34 p.m. Get on OCTD Bus 43A at Harbor Boulevard and Sunflower Avenue, Costa Mesa. 7:00 p.m. Get off OCTD Bus 43A at Harbor and La Habra boulevards, La Habra. 7:54 p.m. Get on RTD Bus 470. 8:09 p.m. Get off RTD Bus 470 at Whittier Boulevard and Colima Avenue, Whittier. 8:48 p.m. Get on RTD Bus 471. 9:08 p.m. Get off RTD Bus 471 at Puente Hills Mall, City of Industry. 10:01 p.m. Get on RTD Bus 482. 10:18 p.m. Get off RTD Bus 482 at Grand Avenue and Golden Springs Road, Diamond Bar. 10:28 p.m. Get in wife’s car. Tolerate snickering. 10:30 p.m. Arrive home.