COMMENTARY : Ticket to Ride: All Aboard the Bus Bandwagon

I confess. I was a solo commuter. For 16 years I drove to work alone from the San Gabriel Valley to downtown Los Angeles. I knew--and I could see--that the smog level of L.A. was becoming progressively worse. But did I do anything about it? I’m afraid not, until about a year and a half ago.

I attended a transportation seminar designed to educate downtown workers about L.A.’s air quality--or lack of it. In a nutshell, it’s bleak--the worst in the country. By the end of the seminar, the message was clear: It will continue to get worse unless we all take part to improve it.

I had complained about the smog plenty, yet I continued to drive my car to work each day, alone, adding to traffic congestion and the air’s pollution. Every day. And my car sat in a parking garage all day.

It cost me a chunk of money each year in gas and maintenance, not to mention many moments of heightened stress fighting bumper-to-bumper traffic. I realized then that what we have taken for granted for so long has resulted in the unhealthy air we are now breathing. On the other hand, the city, commercial developers and employers have finally joined forces to involve commuters in cleaning up our air.

The decision to choose alternative commuting is becoming easier all the time. For example, in my office building, the First Interstate World Center, buying a monthly bus pass can be as easy as making a five-minute trip downstairs to the parking garage cashier. Schedules of the many bus lines are also available.

To make life easier for bus commuters, a company may purchase bus passes in bulk and distribute them right there in the office. I call that service! It’s no wonder that I see more commuters hopping onto the bus bandwagon.

The FIWC’s top-rated transportation program also includes assistance to employees interested in ride-sharing with other commuters. It is possible to match an individual with others working in the same building or one nearby and commuting from the same area.

As an alternative to taking the public bus or ride-sharing, FIWC offers a chartered bus with comfortable cushioned seats that serves commuters from the Pasadena area.

I have worked downtown a long time and have seen mass-transit plans come and go. Something is finally happening in L.A. I decided it was time to make my move: I stopped driving my car--cold turkey. I purchased a bus pass for the following month. The worst that could possibly happen, I thought, was that if the bus didn’t get me to work on time, I would return to driving my car.

Well, that never happened. Going on two years later, I am a very content bus commuter. I save at least $70 a month because I’m not spending it on gas. I no longer have the stress of driving the surface streets when the morning traffic report announces another backup on the freeway.

Instead, I board my bus with my daily newspaper, kick back and relax for the next hour until I reach my destination. It’s great to leave the driving to someone else. What’s more, as my bus flies down the freeway express lane, it zips past the string of cars inching their way into downtown.

My friends and business associates have congratulated me for the change I made and have admitted that they too should be doing the same thing. Others cringe at the thought. The bottom line is that I am leaving my car at home and taking one more air-polluting vehicle off the road.

Oddly enough, after making “the switch,” I discovered great pluses that are now a part of my daily routine. We are constantly racing from one place to another and trying to do it in the least amount of time possible. Riding the bus for the last year and a half has forced me to toss all that unnecessary stress out the window, so to speak.

Instead of watching my “blind spot,” I take in the scenery. Instead of racing to the next green light, I take a little snooze. Why didn’t I do this a long time ago?!

I no longer look forward to the few times when I must drive my car to work to attend a meeting on the other side of town. When I had to do this recently, all that anxiety came back. There was so much more traffic as I drove down Huntington Drive. At another point, traffic came to a standstill for about 10 minutes. My blood pressure started to rise. I need a bumper sticker that reads: “I’d Rather Be on the Bus.”

The rains this spring were kind to us and washed away the dirty air, but only temporarily. It didn’t take long in between wet spells for the smog to set in again. As I drove along the Foothill Freeway one Saturday afternoon, I looked north to see the foothills only a couple of miles away. But I couldn’t see them. The smog was so disgustingly thick. There was not even a hint of the mountain’s outline. Can we take it anymore?

To be, or not to be, a solo commuter. That is the question we need to ask ourselves. How can we say no? We’re running out of excuses. Remember these simple sayings: “Every little bit helps”; “Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it.”

Lucero, 38, is recruiting coordinator for a downtown law firm, to which she commutes from her home in Sierra Madre.