I'm prejudiced against busses in Los Angeles. They're packed, they're smelly, and they're slow. When I lap a bus on my bike on a sunny day, I always hope that some observant soul within realizes that there's a faster alternative.
But I took the coolest bus ride ever last week.
This is a Big Blue Santa Monica bus, and it stops right outside my office. I had heard vague mention of a bus that goes from Santa Monica to Union Station on the 10 Freeway. I was running late, and I knew that biking across town would take easily 1.5 hours. So I decided to take a risk and catch this mysterious Big Blue Bus.
And sure enough, it rolled into the stop right on time at 7pm. It wasn't packed. It wasn't smelly. It was half full. And everyone was talking with one another. Greeting one another as they got on the bus. Greeting the bus driver by name. The bus driver was ushering people to their seats, for gods sake! It was like a non-alcoholic episode of Cheers.
The next person to step on the bus was a friend of mine, Thomas. I didn't expect to see him, but I'm glad I did. He gave me the low-down on this particular bus line as we pulled away from the stop.
Everyone who takes this bus takes it every day because there is simply no faster way to get to Downtown. And so everyone knows one another. And everyone knows Von the bus driver because something of a distinctive individual, who happens to drive very fast.
Thomas takes this bus because he has to catch a train at 8pm. If he misses it, the next one departs at 10:30pm. He missed it once... Von took him out to dinner while he waited.
8pm? I got on this bus at 7pm. Was I supposed to believe that this bus was going to get me across town in less than an hour?
We're approaching the freeway, having made three intervening stops, and Von turns and asks Thomas "Mr. Thomas, may I have a timecheck please?"
"7:15, Mr. Von sir." replies Thomas.
Von gets on the loudspeaker (Von loves the loudspeaker) and says "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Line 10 Freeway Express. Our estimated arrival time at Union Station is 7:50pm. Please put your seat backs and tray tables in their full upright and locked position and prepare for takeoff. My friends, lets go home. By God, lets go home." And with that, we rocketed onto the freeway.
I was not aware that a bus could slip through traffic like a Miata, but that's exactly what Von managed to do. I never felt unsafe, and I don't think we were going too fast, but we were definitely moving faster than all the other vehicles around us. Without a bus lane.
Von announced over the loudspeaker that we would be landing in downtown in four minutes, and to please return to our seats. As we drove through downtown, Von would turn to people he didn't recognize and ask "Where are you headed?" And between frequent time checks with Thomas, he would alter his route to accommodate people's destinations. We arrived at the station with seven minutes to spare. I pulled my bike off the front of the bus and cycled to the Smashlabs.
Total transit time: 1 hr.
Los Angeles just got a little smaller.