Experiment With Public Transit Becomes Ordeal

Fingering the cardboard transit pass in his pocket, Dana Reed grinned gamely and plunged into the crowded subway car.

“If this isn’t the right one, we’re in trouble,” he said, claiming a spot in the aisle to stand and grabbing for a handrail as the car lurched forward. “We’ll end up in the wrong place.”

Reed is a Los Angeles lawyer who serves as vice chairman of the state Transportation Commission. He was in the downtown Pershing Square subway station Wednesday evening, trying to get to Hollywood so he could catch a bus to Westwood.

It was Day 27 of a monthlong personal experiment to see whether the millions of state and federal dollars his commission has pumped into Los Angeles public transportation is paying off.

Reed has parked and locked his car for the month of July, relying exclusively on buses and trains to get around. He has kept a daily journal on the Internet detailing his experiences--and frustrations.

Like Day 3, the first time Reed tried to take the Metro Rail subway to Hollywood. He ended up in the Wilshire district, miles from his destination.

“For some totally inexplicable reason, the MTA has two Metro Red Lines and for the novice rider it is almost impossible to figure out which is which. You have a 50-50 chance of getting on the wrong train,” his journal fumed.

“If a city had four television stations and they were all called Channel 5, wouldn’t we think something was wrong? If every bus was called the No. 11 bus, regardless of where it started or where it ended, wouldn’t we suggest they try something different?

“Well, I’m suggesting the MTA do something different. I’m suggesting they take one of their so-called ‘Red Lines’ and CHANGE THE COLOR!”

Such observations fill Reed’s journal(https://www.dgs.ca.gov/ctc /travels/ReedTravels.htm).

He rages at motorists who don’t let buses merge into traffic lanes, at armored car drivers who block bus stops, and at late buses that cause commuters to miss their trains.

Reed, a 55-year-old Newport Beach resident, described himself on Day 5 as “embarrassed and frustrated” by Orange County mass transit after it took him five hours to travel from his house to the Los Angeles apartment where he stays weeknights.

Confusion at Union Station on Day 14 nearly caused him to miss a Metrolink train to Burbank Airport so he could catch a flight to Sacramento for a Transportation Commission meeting.

He’d like someday to meet those who prepare transit signs and timetables and “let them know there is something wrong with their work product,” he grumbled. “I’m sorry, but how would anyone know that the 6:45 a.m. train to Burbank Airport would be marked ‘Moorpark?’ ”

Reed was astounded by a bus driver he encountered in downtown Los Angeles on Day 18. She kept her personal radio on, ran a series of red lights, passed up a woman at a bus stop who tried to flag her down, gave a tongue-lashing (“Why didn’t you walk?”) to an elderly man who traveled a short distance and then almost drove away while another passenger tried to exit. He identified her by number and urged riders who see her behind the wheel to run for the door.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority often left passenger Reed shaking his head during the month.

“The MTA appears to be on the brink of making another one of its famous world-class blunders,” he warned on Day 7--four days before the Women’s World Cup soccer finals in Pasadena. “Don’t tell me you are not going to provide adequate transportation.”

Reed’s follow-up report on Day 10 was directed to county Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, head of the MTA board. “While 90,185 spectators showed up at the Rose Bowl, Yvonne Burke’s MTA was AWOL,” he wrote. Although the rival Foothill Transit Co. hastily commissioned 50 buses that Reed and 14,000 other fans used, “I’m mad at the MTA for abandoning us.”

His journal praises services such as Metrolink, the Dash commuter buses and a computerized trip-mapping system run by the Southern California Assn. of Governments.

Reed said he found that you can get around Los Angeles on public transportation if you have patience. And it’s cheaper than driving (he spent $55 on fares and passes over the month instead of the $290 in parking and gas his Jeep Grand Cherokee would have eaten up).

As he waited Wednesday night at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Vine Street for his Westwood bus, he said he hopes his journal prods other officials into occasionally using public transportation. But he acknowledged that he can’t wait to get back behind the wheel of his own car.

That’s why on Thursday his entry for Day 28 started out this way: “Three days and counting. Well, if I were ever to do this again I would choose to do it in February. There are only 28 days in February. . . .”