CITY SMART / How to thrive in the urban environment of Southern California : Heresy Amid the Land of the Car Cult

To paraphrase Rousseau, man is born free, but everywhere he is in cars.

Despite what you may have heard--or perhaps experienced--it doesn’t take a car to be free in California. In fact, this state famous for its freeways has one of the best public transportation networks in the country.

Los Angeles, for instance, is an easy train ride from San Diego. Santa Catalina Island is a ferry ride away. San Francisco’s bus and subway network ranks with those of East Coast cities praised for their public transportation.

Even the glacial splendor of Yosemite can be experienced completely sans auto.

You disagree with all this?

Well, you have to argue it with author and transportation planner Kirk Schneider, who contends that California’s public transportation is among the best in the nation.

Schneider believes that true freedom comes when the car is left in the garage. Or even sold. He hasn’t had a car in 15 years, spending the better part of that time traveling on the state’s planes, trains and even ferries.

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Along the way, Schneider put together a book that catalogues and rates the various ways to travel. Now in its fourth edition, the 224-page “California by Bus, Train & Ferry” is part critique, part tour book, part reference manual and part technical journal only a transit wonk could love.

Throughout the book, though, Schneider shows through real examples how the cult of California automobility is more myth than fact. Just this week, for instance, Schneider took a three-day vacation to Yosemite from his home in Davis--all without ever getting behind the wheel.

“I took the Amtrak to Merced and then took the connecting bus to Yosemite and then rode the shuttle around between trail heads,” said Schneider, 35. “You can get almost anywhere the average tourist in a car can.”

Schneider’s book series began in the 1980s as a personal project to compile a comprehensive list of the state’s public transportation. “It was kind of thing for transit junkies,” he said. But over time, it became a way of explaining the state’s vast, but often complicated, mass transit network to regular riders.

“The whole thing is kind of complex,” Schneider said, adding that the complexity puts many people off. “When people first see all this, they don’t understand how they can use it to get from here to there.”

This year’s guide is more user-friendly than those of the past and lists weekend trips families can take on public transit--intended to make public transit more palatable to folks wedded to their cars. But the guide still includes a popular early feature: Schneider’s rating system for local transit networks.

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His rating system earned the wrath of some transportation officials who thought he was too tough. And some riders griped that buses or trains he lauded actually ran late or not at all.

Schneider concedes that his system--which rates transit networks from one to five stars--is not perfect and evaluates only what is supposed to happen, based on published schedules and route information. What actually does happen from day to day is beyond his scope, he says.

Overall, Schneider said San Francisco has the best transportation network in the state, ranking it alongside such transit-famous cities as New York, Washington and Chicago. He rates as excellent--or four stars--the city by the bay’s municipal bus system and as good--or four stars--the famous BART subway.

Despite the car culture of Southern California, local transit systems get high marks. The MTA bus network scores four stars, as do the Santa Monica municipal bus line and Long Beach transit buses.

The DASH and Commuter Express buses operated by the Los Angeles Department of Transportation score five stars, but the costly and popular Metrolink commuter rail earns only one star--a poor rating--for infrequent service and limited destinations.

Schneider said a poor rating does not necessarily mean that the system is no good. It just doesn’t go everywhere it should as often as it should at times when it should, in his opinion. He attributes many of the problems in local transit lines to lack of money.

Riding all these different lines can be a drag, Schneider admitted, confessing that he does not ride every single bus line he writes about, but relies on published statistics in some cases.

“For instance, I don’t really want to go to Stockton and just ride around.”