Like millions of Angelenos, Bonnie Rodriguez has always relied on a car to navigate the sprawling metropolis. But upon hearing about the closure of the Santa Monica (10) Freeway, Rodriguez decided that she would use public transit to get home from the airport.
“I’m trying it for the first time, but so far it’s so good,” Rodriguez, 62, said while waiting Tuesday morning, Nov. 14, at Union Station to catch the Metro A-Line to Pasadena.
More Angelenos and visitors alike are taking public transit after the massive storage yard fire over the weekend heavily damaged and closed a large downtown section of the I-10 freeway, a major artery to get to and from Downtown Los Angeles.
Authorities urged people to use buses, trains or other public transportation to commute as repair of the I-10 gets underway, which officials said on Tuesday would take three to five weeks.
Whether such public transit options will stick for L.A. commuters, who have one of the lowest rates of mass transit ridership in the country, remains to be seen. But at least early in the week, Metro parking lots appeared more full, as more folks hopped on public transit.
To Rodriguez, who lives in Pasadena, taking public transit made sense now, because it shaves her commute time off by half, she said.
After stepping off the plane, she hopped on the LAX FlyAway, a bus that transports airline passengers from the airport to Union Station Downtown and to Van Nuys.
It took only about half an hour for her bus to arrive in Downtown L.A., she said. If she were to have someone pick her up from the airport, it would probably take her at least an hour to arrive home, Rodriguez said.
“It will be a two-step (transportation),” she said, “and it’s much better and easier than the freeway.
“You don’t have to deal with the traffic hassle, so you don’t waste gas,” Rodriguez added. “So far it’s been a good experience, so I definitely will do it again.”
For Benjamin Lemus, who lives in Huntington Park, taking public transit was a good way to get around the hectic Downtown L.A. traffic.
“I usually don’t take the Metro, I usually drive to work,” he said while waiting for the E-Line with several friends at the 7th Street Metro Station during the afternoon rush hour. “Today, they’re having a rally downtown and we didn’t want to drive over there with all the traffic going on, so we decided to take the Metro today.”
Carlos Hernandez, 24, was driving to South Pasadena on Monday when he got a phone notification that the freeway would be shut down. He had to find an alternative route to get to his destination. So instead of dealing with the inconvenience again the next day, Hernandez chose to take the A-Line.
“The Metro is really quick, just sometimes you have to wait a little bit, but if you prepare yourself with the transit app, you can catch a train just in time,” said Hernandez, who’s from Mexico and is visiting family in L.A.
Despite having significant access to the public transit system, only about 15% of Angelenos use public transit to get to work, the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy found.
According to a 2022 Metro survey, public transit riders cited the level of cleanliness inside trains; homelessness on trains; safety; more trains running on time; and the frequency of trains, as their main concerns for riding the Metro.
But despite it all, many train riders after the freeway fire remained longtime users of public transit, seniors without cars and tourists. And it was clear that many people opted for vehicles, despite the closed stretch of the freeway.
Heavy commuter traffic was diverted off the 10 and onto local streets on Tuesday, near Olympic Boulevard and its side streets.
It was enough for the L.A. City Council on Tuesday to approve a motion seeking to address the challenges to public safety and economic impacts to local business caused by the fire and the closed freeway.
The city’s Department of Transportation staff will track the impacts on local streets such as travel time, transit usage, and safety. Staff will then provide a report with recommendations on needed physical improvements, signage, local closures or other measures necessary to facilitate effective traffic flow and minimize cut-through traffic in the community.
Chelsea Star, 26, from the United Kingdom, and Riley Zischke, 21, from Australia, said they opted for public transit because it offers a convenient and affordable option for visitors like themselves to jump from one attraction to another.
Nevertheless, the pair was surprised to find that not as many Angelenos use their public transit system, compared with people in other major cities in the U.S.
“There needs to be more convenient forms of transportation, especially in such a large city,” Star said, adding, “I feel like more people would definitely use public transportation if there were more routes and whatnot.”
But there are exceptions.
Brian Townsend, 34, who lives in East Los Angeles, said he owns a car but prefers to use public transportation to commute and to pick up his children from school.
“Sometimes I drive, but I don’t really like to drive, because there’s crazy people out there and trafficwise, I don’t like to drive,” Townsend said.
Patrick Chandler, a spokesperson for LA Metro, said Tuesday that the transit authority is still calculating the ridership change over the past few days, and he expects to have those numbers soon.
An estimated 956,754 people took the bus and the trains during weekdays in October, according to Metro.
“We are hoping that people who normally drive into L.A., especially in the I-10 corridor, are seeking public transit options, especially because you have such a major freeway closed in Downtown L.A.,” he said.
City News Service contributed to this story.