Countering Car Culture on a Smooth Ride to LAX

On my last subway trip, five years ago in New York, people around me loudly snapped gum with irritating indifference.

Even now, five years later, I can still smell the odor of sweat, old sneakers and cigarettes wafting through the stuffy New York train.

As a former fan of mass transit--an L.A. native who didn’t learn to drive until age 21--I spent years crisscrossing the city on buses and wishing for a subway.

But the New York experience soured me on public transportation. And like most Southern Californians, I settled comfortably in my car and chugged along the city’s congested streets and freeways.

With the subway extension opening in North Hollywood, not far from where I live, I decided to give mass transit another chance. For the first time in my lifetime, Valley residents can hop on a train to Hollywood, downtown and central Los Angeles, Long Beach and the South Bay.

My goal was to take the subway and light rail system from the San Fernando Valley to Los Angeles International Airport. Just because I can.

Friends in Boston and New York had fun with my plans.

“L.A. has a subway?” a friend from Boston asked, between laughs. “Whatever will you guys do with your cars?”

True, no area epitomizes the car culture more than sprawling Southern California. We eat in our cars, we groom, we scan the newspaper, we cheer for the Dodgers. Cell phones in hand, we make dinner reservations, check in with the baby-sitter, negotiate business deals and trade stocks--all while cursing traffic at the Ventura-San Diego freeway interchange.

Traffic is especially awful in the Valley, home to some of the city’s most car-clogged freeways, boulevards and canyon passes, and where a trip to LAX often takes an hour, sometimes two.

I set aside all the bias against public transportation in Los Angeles, convinced that I had found a new way to save money on gas, help improve the city’s air quality and reduce the stress I feel when trapped in traffic and cursed at by rude drivers.

All that was required was time and a talent for navigating a 50-station, 59.4-mile rail system.

To get from North Hollywood to LAX, I needed to ride the MTA’s three rail systems. The Metro Red Line subway would take me from North Hollywood to downtown Los Angeles, where I would board the Metro Blue Line to South-Central. Then I would catch the Metro Green Line and a quick, free shuttle to the airport.

No problem. I’ve figured out trickier routes in unfamiliar cities such as New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Washington, D.C.

On a recent Friday, a cab arrived at my apartment at 9:30 a.m. to take me to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority station at Chandler and Lankershim boulevards, the northwestern tip of the Metro Red Line.

Normally I would have driven there, but the station’s parking area wasn’t ready for cars yet. Besides, I thought a cabbie would give my adventure an East Coast authenticity.

Unsolicited, he ranted about the subway: “You couldn’t pay me to go down on that thing. You want to know why? Because this is earthquake country, and when the big one hits, people are going to be trapped down there and die.”

Fifteen long minutes later, I met Rick Jager, an MTA spokesman, at the mouth of the citrus-colored, palm tree-lined station. He gave me an orange construction worker’s vest and authorization to take a test run on the 6.3-mile extension.

He also reassured me that the subway tunnel was built to withstand an 8.0-magnitude quake. “Think of it as a high rise on its side, one that moves with the ground,” Jager explained. “It’s safer down here than out there.”

Jager paused. “Of course, anything bigger than an 8 and we’re all in trouble.”

That said, we boarded the train at 9:58 a.m. and cruised toward the first stop at Universal City.

“It’s like we’re on Lankershim,” Jager said, “without the stoplights.”

Moments later, we zoomed past the Hollywood and Highland stop to Hollywood and Vine, where passengers boarded, including a young public transportation convert.

“This is my first time [on the subway], and I like it ‘cause it goes really fast and I don’t have to walk,” said 5-year-old Stacy Royal, who sat in the front of the train and ooohed at the “pretty” blue emergency lights in the tunnel.

By 10:22 a.m. we were downtown and I was enthusiastic about how fast the ride was, as well as the cleanliness of the train.

I said a quick goodbye to Jager, who was heading back to his office, and I literally ran to catch the Metro Blue Line, which stretches 22 miles from downtown Los Angeles to Long Beach.

Jammed with commuters, the train left at 10:34 a.m. Most people slept, read or worked crossword puzzles. Some children cried. A couple yelled at each other about whether to go to McDonald’s or Taco Bell.

Others--like Ken Hansen--stared out the window. “I do this every day,” he said, sighing. “But I like it.”

Hansen said he pays $42 a month on public transportation, which he uses to get from his home in Long Beach to the bowling alley in Hollywood, where he works as a desk manager.

“Nobody understands why I don’t have a vehicle,” said Hansen, who’s originally from upstate New York and likes reading Ann Rice novels during his commute. “But I save a lot of money.”

Yeah, $42 barely fills up my husband’s and my gas tanks for a week.

After a few stalls and stops, I exited the Blue Line at 10:48 a.m. and boarded the Green Line at 11:05 a.m. The train was so packed, I had to stand.

I had a lovely view of the semi-packed 105 freeway that ran parallel to the rail, and I admit to feeling smug because I had bypassed the sputtering herd of cars.

Fifteen minutes later, the train stopped just outside LAX and I caught a free five-minute shuttle to the terminals.

Roughly, my rail trip cost $2.95 and took 90 minutes--about 20 minutes less than the car trip back to the Valley from LAX.

Although I’m not ready to sell my car, I definitely would consider taking rail transit to LAX and other destinations.

And I can’t wait to brag to my East Coast friends: “Our subway is nicer than yours.”