The NOHO Express
For residents of the Santa Clarita Valley, it has basically been, drive or train. Yes, there are buses, but unless you are going somewhere specific and the bus takes you there, you are SOL.
Then along came the NOHO Express. It arrived with little fanfare in August. I was still taking the train...but thinking about the fact that I might actually be able to save a few minutes on my commute, if I switched. You see, I work in Hollywood. I take the train all the way to Union Station and then I take the subway all the way out to Hollywood. That little detour into the City, adds a half hour onto a brutal commute that was taking over 2 hours each way. So anything that might cut that down, is worth exploring.
I talked with another train rider, who also commuted into the Hollywood area and he was thinking of switching over. One day, he disappeared and I realized I had better check this thing out, before August was finished. So I did and I found out that, for me, it cost almost $100 less a month and if the Gods who are in charge of the traffic were with me, I might even shave up to a half hour off my commute, each way. OK, with that kind of incentive, I was in for September.
Well, since it is now October, how is it working?
It's working well enough that I did buy the October Pass. I have good days and I have bad days. There was the day that the evening bus didn't come for quite a bit of time and then there was the time that traffic got stopped for over an hour on the Hollywood Freeway. Just after Sherman Way and before Roscoe Blvd. Just sitting there...I did some work from work, I read for a while and then finally I took a nap. I felt very bad for the driver. As I said to my husband, at least I could DO things. If I had been driving, I would have had to just sit there.
There are things I hope that they change, the next time they figure out a schedule.
Don't expect traffic to be good for the afternoon pick ups at North Hollywood. We have a real problem with the 6:40P bus. It never seems to come and so I end up on the 7:17P, even though I have waited since something like 6:30P for it. It has become a running joke among the commuters...never a good sign.
My morning bus seems to be exactly on time each day, without fail. A good thing.
Metrolink, was never on time in the morning...at least for the 7:53AM Train.
Thank you Santa Clarita, for finally coming up with a connecting bus line into another transportation hub. Your residents who need to get somewhere else besides Downtown, appreciate it. For those not in the know, The Red Line and the Orange Line are both right there. It gets you many places in the Valley and into Hollywood.
I hope it succeeds.
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Photo Credit:
A Santa Clarita Articulated
Bus with the (at the time)
new paint job. My bus is
considerably smaller.
It's like each form of transportation has its own personality. Glad it's working out for you so far. As you say if there are delays at least you (a prepared rider, though not everyone is) can do stuff.
ReplyDeleteI used public transportation (buses) to/from college back in the day. Approximately 97% of the time the delays were non-existent to negligible. But waiting at a bus stop by the Ben Franklin bridge in Camden, NJ, in the falling snow for a bus that could be an hour or more late (plus not having any way of KNOWING how late it might be)... well, that experience was not necessarily a fond one.
Although actually, as I recall even in snow the buses were usually not too far behind schedule. Overall I gave the drivers and NJ Transit very good marks for those four years and tried to be understanding/forgiving of delays due to bad weather and unforeseen obstacles.
You could get semi-acquainted with regular passengers (and drivers) if your riding time was semi-consistent. That could be a good thing or a bad thing, but more often than not it was good. Though I wonder how it is now in this my-cell-phone-does-everything age. I can easily imagine a lot of people (most?) just sit there with their phones to their ears or thumbing their keypads while barely looking at one another.
Three bus-related experiences I remember from those days:
1. One time there was a delay because the bus slid on a slippery wet road and bumped a car. The driver had to exit the bus to tend to things and there were only about three riders left at that point. One was prepared (in his way) and decided to light up a non-traditional cigarette. Not sure if he was with the other passenger or not, but they began to share. I politely declined when offered a drag.
2. One day while waiting at the BF Bridge stop I was pacing around on the concrete island and when I looked down by the curb I saw a small ziploc bag with some sort of white powder substance in it. Hmmm. I opted to just step away and not call attention to it.
3. Then there was the time I was walking to the BF Bridge stop and that required walking a block from the campus past some row houses (abandoned, I think). Along the way an enterprising youth came up, matched my stride, and inquired if I would be interested in buying some gold chains or watches while briefly showing me some of his stock. Again, I politely declined.
I too rode the bus to school each day and let me say this, it was nothing like your experiences. Though I was definitely closer to the "hippie" era then you were. :-)
ReplyDeleteOne thing I have decided is that if an El Nino year kicks in this rainy season, I am so going back to the train for a month or two. I feel it will be safer that way.
I don't know if it's something your area transit people already do, or have thought about and rejected, but around here the buses that run on the freeways use the shoulders, so they can usually go around the worst of the traffic. They started doing that after the I-35W bridge collapsed and the remaining highways had to take on a much-increased load of traffic. It's sort of a separate right-of-way, with major heavy fines for those misusing it. It's worked so well that not only did TPTB continue it after the bridge was rebuilt, but are now talking about actually spending the money to put in dedicated RoW for buses in what's currently the freeway median.
ReplyDeletep.s. -- my SU can actually parallel-park those 60-foot articulated buses. Amazing...
ReplyDeleteWow, bows down to the magnificence that is your SU. Give him an extra hug from me.
ReplyDeleteWe have car pool lane through much of the freeway trip. Just a small section doesn't have it, so we do better then traffic does. Boy, can those drivers move across 5 or so lanes of traffic in about 20 feet. They wait til the last minute to bail out of the car pool lane.
It's amazing how nice people will be about letting you merge when your "car" is 40 feet long and 12 feet tall... ;-)
ReplyDeletemy nephew saw one of those "articulated" buses when he was about 3 years old. He yelled, "Hey, look at the squishy bus!" So they will forever be know as a squishy bus to me!
ReplyDeleteHey Angel. Still planning on Thursday-Friday in La Canada Flintridge for Tim Hallinan's book tour. Will call you on Mon...
Love.. and hugs..
Cindy
Cindy: Looking forward to your call!
ReplyDelete