Week Eight • Go Metro! Bus 720

What exactly do we classify as a place? It's rather a broad and almost ridiculous question to ask you may think, but if we were to actually sit down and reflect on this question we'd come to realize that a place isn't just a city, a store, a neighborhood or community; it can very well be a mode of transportation, specifically public transportation.

Within public transportation (bus, train, airplane, etc) lies a moving structure of what seems to be, in a way, the essence of changing social difference. By this I mean that there is a sort of fluctuation back and forth between these changes, primarily in racial demographics, which I will be describing throughout the rest of this post.

For example, if you were to follow one bus line for a long period of time (as I did today), and paid attention to both the outside city landscape and the people getting on and off the bus, you will see that there exists social difference. These social differences are the ones we're all already very familiar with: race and economic class.

The upcoming Metro Division 13 Bus Maintenance and Operations Facility
[photo courtesy of article written by Roger Vincent]

But before I get into talking about the bus itself, I remember coming across an article published by the L.A. Times earlier this month about the construction of a 442,265-square-foot maintenance facility for the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority. This facility is said to cost $73.5 million and is being built at the northeast corner of Vignes Street and Cesar E. Chavez Avenue. It will be housing 200 buses that run on compressed natural gas and will include a three-story concrete parking structure, a two-story bus maintenance and office building, and a cash counting facility. This facility is set to be completed in the summer of 2014 (Vincent).

What caught by interest about this article was the fact that these buses will be running on natural gas rather than oil (by oil, I'm referring to the gasoline we put into our cars and not crude oil). Studies have shown that natural gas is actually cleaner for the atmosphere than gasoline and diesel; vehicles running on natural gas "emit 33 percent less carbon dioxide (CO2), 80 to 93 percent less hydrocarbons, 70 percent less carbon monoxide, 90 percent fewer toxic emissions, and almost no soot" (Berg). This sounds pretty awesome in regards to air quality; unfortunately, in reality, even though natural gas is cleaner than gasoline and diesel when burned, it is still dangerous to the environment and to communities.

The extraction of natural gas is just as detrimental to the environment and human health as drilling for crude oil. Fracking (short for hydrofraulic fracturing) is a drilling technique which involves "injecting toxic chemicals, sand, and millions of gallons of water under high pressure directly into the ground to release natural gas in shale deposits." As a result this mixture of toxins, sediment, and any natural gas relased can "leak to the surface and enter rivers and groundwater in the process" ("What is Fracking?").

So, unfortunately, while this new facility will be promoting better public transportation for the residents of the Los Angeles Metropolitian area, we're still going to be relying on an energy source that is just as risky, just as damaging to the environment and our health, and unsustainable (more so if the demand for natural gas increases).

720 - Eastbound

Going back to the bus itself, I started my travels by taking the Culver City Bus line 6 from UCLA to Wilshire and Westwood Blvd for roughly fifteen to twenty minutes to catch the Metro line 720 going eastbound towards Los Angeles-Commerce.

All aboard!

See those blue pants, purple converse, bag and bike helmet in the photo on the right? Yeah, just a little proof that I actually rode the bus. I'd have take a picture of myself, but I felt a little awkward as a few people were already starting at me (maybe because I was dressed relatively colorful and wore a UCLA Celebrate t-shirt expressing our football victory against USC this past Saturday (Go Bruins!).

My bus adventure begins!
(apologies for the dirty window, you can blame the rain haha)

To start off, the 720 (or at least the particular bus I was on, as well as the one on the way back home) was quite noisy not in regards to the people on the bus (because there weren't many and they were actually really quiet). Not only that, but it was a really bumping and jerky ride. I remember riding several lines of buses nearly every day in San Francisco during the three months I lived there that were just as equally long as the 720, but a lot more smoother (spare the moments were everyone swayed every time the bus stopped and started moving again). I can either assume that maybe it depends on the driver as well as the roads, but overall I was a bit intrigued by how I, along with the other passengers, were swaying and jerking around as the bus was in motion.

Something that we all know (at least those who are familiar with riding buses) is that this is also a perfect location for advertisement, but what I noticed on this 720 was that it mostly advertised the Tap card and the Metro public transportation.

Also, booo Trojans, haha.

But what I found most interesting and rather odd was not the racial demographics on the bus, but how they seem to naturally seat themselves. I took a rough count of the people on the bus during the start of my trip and there were about twenty-five people. Majority, if not all, of the passengers in the front were white (for lack of a better description) whereas everyone in the back half of it were of African American, Hispanic or Latino origin. But this wasn't forced, this was how everyone seated themselves. There were still many empty seats throughout the bus, each stop, new passengers would come on and I would observe how it seemed about 70% of the time, people of African American, Hispanic, and Latino heritage would enter the bus at the front, pass all the empty seats and go straight to the first available seat in the back.

It also occurred that while spots in the back would open up, most of those who were white immediately sat in the available seats in the front. I watched this for about twenty minutes and noticed this happen over and over again. It got me wondering why this was even happening. Nobody told anyone to sit in the back, there were no rules saying this is where certain people should sit on the bus, yet this was what I saw. As I'll later come to find out, on my way back to UCLA, this phenomena did not occur. Going westbound on the 720 towards UCLA, the bus was far more crowded and the majority were of African American origin.

Why it was like this going eastbound, I don't think I'll ever know. I thought hard about why this may have occurred, but really nothing came to mind. It couldn't possibly be because those who are of African American, Hispanic or Latino descent instinctively felt that they were the minority and the back of the bus was where they were meant to be. That makes no sense to me. So as to why this happened, I don't think I'll ever come to understand, but thought it was definitely worth sharing. If anyone has thoughts, ideas, theories, and any insight on this matter, please feel free to share them below.

For the most part, both east and westbound, most people kept to themselves with only a few who knew each other sustained a conversation. Everyone else read a book, listened to their music, talked on their phone, or quietly stared out the window. This was definitely a fine example of gesellschaft and gemeinschaft coinciding; these people were sharing this public transportation, something that in itself was its own little community of most people sticking to routine, but remained strangers to each other, hardly (if at all) showing any acknowledgment.

The bus stopped at and eventually passed by Rodeo Dr. and Beverly Dr. where it got a bit more crowded but people still had seats to take (so no one had to stand). It's pretty clear to see that the 720 also serves as transportation for shoppers in this area.

It's not hard to miss Rodeo Dr. and Beverly Dr. as the buildings in this area are very architecturally rich
and highlighted with gold trimming such at the one shown in this picture.

But as soon as the famous shopping district ended, the bus drove through a more business and office oriented zone. This area was spotted with palms and other trees for about two miles before the 720 pass La Jolla Ave and everything almost suddenly became rather dull. There was hardly, if any, trees at this point and whereas there were houses before La Jolla Ave, there were now nearly only apartment complexes.

There were also small shopping and service plazas scattered along this part of Wilshire Blvd.

The 720 eventually made a left on Valencia St and then a right on W 6th St. At first 6th St. looked pretty run down with buildings and apartments that didn't look very attractive.

The housing on this part of 6th St.

Hellooo many tall buildings

However, just after passing over the Harbor Freeway, the bus entered the epitome of a concrete jungle. But almost immediately hitting 6th and Main (where I got off) these tall building casting large shadows over the street disappeared and everything brighten up.

There were three things I quickly took note of:

1. There were stores and other services on the ground level of building, the levels stacked above being housing for residents.
2. That this area was predominantly made up of those of African American, Hispanic, and Latino origin and very few white and Asian.
and lastly,
3. The homeless was extremely prominent in this area.

I also came to find that it can very well be easy to get lost in the part of Los Angeles, especially if you've never been here. Unfortunately, it didn't feel like that great of a place to get lost in. During the two blocks I walked to catch the 720 going westbound, I got cat-called twice and then flirted with (while I proceeded to ignore the man who was much older than me) while waiting for the bus while there were countless people standing around me. He had no problem puckering his lips at me in passing with people watching who, turned out, didn't care.

I found this both awkward (despite this not being the first time since I got it in San Francisco as well), but also interesting seeing how I walked about the same amount of distance to board the 720 going eastbound and wasn't even acknowledged by anyone once.

Overall, this trip really showed me how just one line of public transportation can pass through many different communities and other areas can be vastly different than the ones neighboring it in terms of racial, economic, and social difference.

Miscellaneous Field Notes:

Route

Time: roughly 2 hours total (1 hour east, 1 hour west back to UCLA)
Distance: roughly 12.5 miles

Other References:

1. Berg, Linda R., Mary Catherine Hager, and David M. Hassenzahl. Visualizing: Environmental Science. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2011.
2. Vincent, Roger. "$73.5-million Mero bus facility being built in downtown L.A." Los Angeles Times Business. Los Angeles Times, 4 Nov. 2012. Web. 23 Nov. 2012.
3. "What is Fracking?" Don't Frack with NY! Riverkeeper: NY's Clean Water Advocate, 2012. Web. 23 Nov. 2012.