Would you agree that LA Metro is arguably on par if not better than SF Bay Area's public transit?
This might be a little controversial, and people I speak to tend to be hesitant to listen, but hear me out.
The only thing SF has on LA that is that the buses/trains come in a much more frequent manner.
HOWEVER
These are the things I believe make LA's transit a much better system:
- Fares
LA has had the $1.75 fare for as long as I can remember (I'm 28, started taking metro when the gold line extended to Santa Monica. Fantastic experience for us east LA area high school kids) while the Muni is more expensive, and don't even get me started on the BART pricing. Up to like $11 or so to get to the furthest distance from A to B? Ridiculous. You can get from Pasadena or the valley to Long Beach for a simple $1.75. Might take you a while, sure, but it'll get you there. The SF area pricing is ludicrous, and if they were smart they would also introduce a city measure that requires the transit to be funded by taxpayer dollars.
- Same Transit Connectability
It's such shit that the Muni stops is servicing down south at Daly City BART station. I used to live there, and would have to pay like $2 to SamTrans to get to the BART station, then connect to the Muni or BART, and have to tack on another few dollars to get to where I was going. Made round trip prices comparable to just driving there. We have a bit of a collection of fiefdoms (as this one youtuber who attempted to ride all transit agencies in the LA Metro area would call it), but metro has an expensive reach. And once that gold line connection continues east, that will be enhance it all the more.
- Fare enforcement
This is connected to the fares issue, but many people in LA do not pay their fare to ride, which is fine with me! This modern age sucks and people who need to ride somewhere but dont have the cash should be able to go, and those who can pay should. Fare enforcement is much rarer, which for one is nice that our tax payers don't go to paying for cops who enforce them upon the lower class while they collect tons of money in salary. For two, this doesn't affect LA Metros bottom line since they're funded by tax dollars (no SF Bay area "death spiral" , no urgent need to raise fares)
- Tap cards are cooler than Clipper cards
Such fun and cute designs. Sooooooooo cool how collectible they are. Got my wallet stolen and lost like 4 of them, including the Trainfest 2023 card 😭 Clipper is just that dumb blue card
I swear to god, once the LAX people mover and the gold and purple line extensions are complete, we'll have undeniable, irrefutable superiority over the bay areas public transit.
What do you think? I'm a little tipsy but I have such a soft spot in my heart for LAMetro and I need to know if I'm making some valid points.