I am taking a trip to Pasadena next summer, and *gasp* I will not be renting a car while in the area. I may not stay in a Pasadena hotel, so I have a question about the metro system. I am aware that I can take the Gold line up to Pasadena, but what station can I get off that is closest to the Rose Bowl Stadium?

If anyone could help me out with this small small problem, that would be great.

There is no station close to the Rose Bowl, that area is one of the Bermuda Triangles of LA....check metro.net

You have to use the bus.

DUDE RENT A CAR

I suggest taking the bus. But really you need a car!

Of course you can take the Gold Line and from a 10 minute investigation of the area I see the Pasadena Rapid Transit Line skirts around the Rose Bowl the #'s 51/52 bus, it shouldn't be a long ride from any of the Gold Line Stations, though I'm too lazy to check up on frequency for you. Why don't you just look all of the info up? If I can do this in 10 minutes I'm sure you can find a way to get to the Rose Bowl with some modest research. But this leaves me at a crucial point that I've been attempting to resolve now for some time...........

Many people who live in Pasadena and work downtown do not take the Gold Line. Many people who live in Long Beach(downtown) and work in downtown LA do not take the Blue Line. Alot of people who mimic the same commute leaving their house in North Hollywood and working in either Koreatown, along Wilshire and/or downtown do not take the Red Line subway. When this person stated that he would like to use mass transit this time around while staying in Pasadena, some said 'just rent a car' almost as if they were fanatical Citgo and Exxon worshippers. Why?
When I hear people talking about such a long commute like 30 minutes on the Gold Line I really wonder if they are living in mass transit reality and/or if they are just making another attempt to stay their fat asses in their cars? I often think about my 30 minute commute from Uptown Manhattan to the Wall St. area? Or what about my cousin's 'bitch of a commute' from Staten Island, along a ferry, onto the 5/6 and up to her school on the Upper Eastside? Travel time each way: 1:10, on a good day. Yet I never and I'm quite sure she has never solely based on our commuting experiences told a visiting friend or relative 'just rent a car'.
Now of course the obvious comes to mind, statements such as 'but NYC has a more extensive transit system than we do'? Do they? Or 'but you don't need a car in NYC'. You don't?
Are these statements fact or just perception?
I would agree that NYC does have a much more extensive 'rapid transit' system, which can make life easier, but my cousin would still have an hour and a half commute.
One of the true breaking points in whether to take mass transit or drive a car (this has been my observation) is whether their is sufficient parking for your car. Traffic doesn't seem to be that big of a deal with alot of people as the Metrolink passes up people on the freeway every morning and evening going in the same direction, so does the Green Line as well as the Red Line though underneath the cars. But of course those same people have somewhere to park their cars once arriving at their destination, therefore giving them no real incentive to stop driving. It just doesn't seem like we can go on advocating free parking or acting as if parking is a right while advocating mass transit. Or worse yet, bashing mass transit in LA while never getting out of our cars and doing some real investigating. Would my cousin have driven to school had she had the means and if their was a guarantee that parking was available? Possibly.
But that leads me to yet another point that seems to be hard for some transit advocates and the folks who push for the "car dependant" to take transit to understand. Culture.
The culture of LA has become one of car depedancy. Culture is much harder to change in people than even making them pay $20 for parking at a Lakers game when they could have just taken the Red Line to the Blue Line, or just the Blue straight shot up from Long Beach. Surprisingly, these people will pay the $20 for parking and an unknown amount for gas instead of a $3 round trip. And then they will look at you as if you are krazy when you tell them that you decided to take the train! The culture of the city must be addressed and then hard choices to start limiting parking and doing away with free altogether. People in transit dependant cities like NYC take mass transit because a)they don't own a car b)the city (at least historically) has made it a modest challenge to own and drive a car c)the culture dictates against it. Actually, my parents owned a car while we lived in Brooklyn but my dad would never drive it into work because parking was just tooo expensive. He still walked half a mile to the train stop or sometimes even took a bus to the stop. What does the culture here say about walking half a mile to a train stop or taking a bus to a train stop?
Of course their are the realities of trip generators but this is assuming that all of that is in place e.g. the downtown Long Beach to Downtown LA commute or any of the others previously mentioned.

This is an ongoing discussion that I would like to continue to have with everyone and would like to know what you think. I don't believe that their is a right or wrong answer when approaching this topic, for each city must react to its profile in order to attract people to its mass transit system.
But this made me think, why would anyone say just rent a car when their are viable options for this poster to take mass transit or at least a mix of mass/private transit could have been suggested since he's not asking which is better, he's plainly stating that he would like to take mass transit?
What's an acceptable mass transit commute for you?
What's an acceptable walking distance to a rapid mass transit line?

Klamedia,

You bring up many good points. Growing up as a kid here in L.A., I found myself taking transit only as a novel activity. It was like going on a carnival ride. I rarely saw it as a necessity mainly because my parents never used mass transit. As I got older and began junior high, I started using it as a necessity. It was then that I saw the importance of mass transit in a huge city such as Los Angeles. This of course all changed when I started high school and you weren’t cool unless you drove a car. This relates a bit with the culture issue that was brought up. We laugh at people who say they take the Metro to work when they can very easily drive. We look down on them and pray that they will come to their senses. I got my degree in Anthropology and studying cultures is what I knew best and there definitely is a change of POV and values here in L.A. than any other part of the world, let alone the US. People from NY, or Chicago, or even San Francisco can’t imagine why we are so different from them. “We all live in America!” some would say. This summer I started an internship in DTLA and I decided to start taking the Metro since the office is across the street from the 7TH/Metro station. I love it! I can’t imagine ever driving to work. I find myself getting very irritated when I have to drive in the middle of the day and encountering any sort of traffic. I remember the first time I told my friends that I was taking mass transit to work and they seemed skeptical. They wanted to find some reason to feel sorry for me. “How long does it take you to get to work?” one friend asked. I told them that from the Reseda Orange Line station to the 7TH/Metro station is a little over an hour. Eureka! They have found their reason. An hour is way too long to be stuck in a bus/train to go to work. They couldn’t be bothered with idea. But why? For the first couple of weeks of my internship, I drove from my home in the Valley to DT. Travel time ranged anywhere from 30 minutes (very rarely however) to over 2 hours! That’s insane. You mean to tell me you rather gamble on whether or not you’ll make it to work on time? My commute on the Metro ranges from 50 minutes to 1 hour and 15 minutes. And it’s not work. I don’t have to concentrate on the road. I don’t stress over people cutting me off. I read a book to work and I lose track of time. Plus I don’t pay for parking or gas. I find it hard to believe that driving to DT (gas prices???) then finding parking ($$$$) is better than 3 bucks a day. I of course understand that not everyone has the luxury of hopping on a red line train to work. However, for those of you who can and don’t, what’s the deal? As far as why people would say “rent a car” to people visiting, well I guess it’s just the culture :) .

its still a matter of convince. alot of us still cannot take the train bus to work because it is not time efficient to take a bus/train. i want to take something besides my elantra to work but this cite is not ready yet.


on a side note, if you guys have not looked at it i would highly recommend a glance at the tokyo mass transit tread. god how i cant wait to see los angeles looking like that!

Why would someone in their right mind want to take transit to work. When you have a $500 car note on a nice ride you really like......

On another note to (backstrom), make you carpool and you'll be there in your destination on a jippy!

Again, sad to say, the ride you choose is an issue of economics. To a certain extent, Ferney you are right...If you can afford it, use your car. If not, there are other means to move around the city. Research shows that subway and public transit riders in NYC earn $15,000.00 less on average per year than the median income earner. These are not the riders by "choice." There are those however who choose public transit for other reasons such as conveniece, less stress, disability or old age. The MTA was recently named America's Best for 2006, so let's support the MTA and spread the word around!

My only question is why would you want to see the Rose Bowl, other than to go to the Flea market?.....go to Expostion Park instead where the historic LA Coliseum stands and visit the museums around it! The area is also much more accessible by public transit!

Thanx "gilby" for those great observations. I do believe that the culture is changing here, rightly by force. A friend of mine who lives in the Valley and who never rode a bus in LA has recently started working downtown. I encouraged him to look into taking the Red Line to work since he can drive to the station and park. This person, who never took transit in this city hates when he has to drive to work now. Even more surprisingly, in considering his new residency he purposely looked for places around the Red Line.

^^ Just tell your "Buddy" to move Downtown. Then he could just walk to work, no more driving. One less person in our local freeways, woohoo!

I commuted most of the time when I was staying in LA for several months. But since I was living on the west part of the city (Culver City), I didn't have problems commuting at all. The no.3 Culver City bus runs every 10 mins. during weekdays and I usually keep schedules so I would know if the bus is coming. The CC bus goes to Venice where you can take the MTA bus either to Venice Beach or Downtown. Further, the no.3 stops at Westside Pavillion which has transfer buses to Sta. Monica and Westwood.

It's also according to what part of the city do you live in. Commuting would be harder if you live in The Valley, Orange County or east of downtown.

Are you going for a football game? They have a shuttle that starts in the Otis Parsons parking lot near Los Robles that serves Gold Line riders going to the UCLA football games. Otherwise, outside of events there, transitwise you're out of luck because the neighborhood around the Rose Bowl really doesn't want people going there unless there's an event (and even then they don't like to see too many events there...)

Why would someone in their right mind want to take transit to work. When you have a $500 car note on a nice ride you really like......

On another note to (backstrom), make you carpool and you'll be there in your destination on a jippy!

even if i were rich, i find it hard to choose car over transit... but hey, thanks to alot of drivers, rail gets me where i want to go quicker

even if i were rich, i find it hard to choose car over transit... but hey, thanks to alot of drivers, rail gets me where i want to go quicker

There's nothing wrong with owning a car. I own a car (or at least am still paying it off, bought new in 2005). There is, however, something wrong with being DEPENDENT on the car.

I live in East Hollywood, 3 blocks from the nearest Red Line station, close to some heavily-used bus lines and for the sake of exercise, can walk up to a mile to places I need to go (post office, bank, coffeehouse, etc), and bike up to 5 miles to other places if I don't need to transport anything (I'm a musician and I need my car to bring my equipment around).

Driving a car is great. But driving it in traffic, paying tons of money for auto mechanic/repair/maintenance, not to mention gas, is not great. Since I am not dependent on my car to take me every single place (where I can walk, bike or take the train or bus when I can). My car comes out all the better for it -- it's not subject to as much wear and tear, will be less prone to mechanical problems and thus will last longer than other people's cars. So when I do drive, I can enjoy my car better than other people can.

Actually today I decided to drive to my consulting job in North Hollywood, but I could have taken the Red and Orange lines there easily (it's one block from the Valley College station). No big deal until that big closure on the 101 at Barham this afternoon! Yes, I should have made myself "Go Metro" :I

I do agree the car culture in Cali is ingrained. Like everything else in South Cali. Traffic,Gangs,homeless,Hollywood etc.... My situation is a good example of economics. I live in Riverside and work in Culver City. The Metro system is my transporation. This is what made me change.
My wife totaled my 2002 BMW540I in Feb 06. I used this car to commute between Riverside and Culver City. The drive time would range from 1hr to 2:30 minutes. Fortunately for me I own a loft in downtown LA. and stay there during the week. The bad thing about Downtown is I have to pay parking which is about $100 to$150 per month. My total bill per month car,insurance,gas,parking $1500. Luckily the insurance company paid off my car and gave me $3k. My wife survived a horrible car accident. Those Germand do know how to build a good car. If the car would have been a cheap American or Japanese car my wife would be toast.

I decided to not buy another car instead I decided to use the Metro My trip takes a total time of two hrs. with out any stress or cost. I spend $200 a month on transporation. My co-workers find it odd. My boss thinks I should get a car. Im going to keep trucking on Metro.
:)

My co-workers find it odd. My boss thinks I should get a car. Im going to keep trucking on Metro.

There was a news item in TV a few weeks ago saying that there is an LA city ordinance that states employees who have parking benefits should be reimbursed if they use public transit to get to work....and LA Metro/Metrolink also has special discounted rates if the employers enroll their employees in their programs. You should check this out.....

I'm with "elsong", I have private transpo but refuse to become car depedant. I was very proud to take my car in for that 3 months or 3,000 miles check up/oil change and at 3 months I was 2,000 miles short of the typical 3,000. But then again I live in Silver Lake and this hood has the 24 hour 4 bus,304 limited stop, 2 and a Red line station 3/4 of a mile away.

More changing culture!! This would have not been even thought of 10 years ago!!

A concert that you get in for free if you show your metro pass. Check out the easy directions that tell you how to get to the concert from practically anywhere.

http://www.fashionpeace.com/pda/

I do agree the car culture in Cali is ingrained. Like everything else in South Cali. Traffic,Gangs,homeless,Hollywood etc....

No you're wrong, it is NOT ingrained. (Did the Gabrielino Indians drive around in cars?) but rather forced upon us. People rode mass transit years ago, before there were freeways. Traffic, gangs and homelessness are not unique to Los Angeles, beleive it or not other cities have those problems too.

Also, "Hollywood" may be a district in Los Angeles but the whole concept of "Hollywood" that Americans fall for and believe exists was actually created by marketing people in Madison Avenue (New York City, that is). All of the negative images of Los Angeles you see in movies, TV, etc were done on purpose by people with lots of money in NYC.

even if i were rich, i find it hard to choose car over transit... but hey, thanks to alot of drivers, rail gets me where i want to go quicker

Only the middle class drives... if you're poor or rich, you pay someone else to drive for you :)

There was a news item in TV a few weeks ago saying that there is an LA city ordinance that states employees who have parking benefits should be reimbursed if they use public transit to get to work....and LA Metro/Metrolink also has special discounted rates if the employers enroll their employees in their programs. You should check this out.....

I have a friend who works for the state, and his metro monthly pass is free. I don't know if he pays up front and get reimbursed. I just know him being a state employee its free and he talks advantage of this and take the blue line to work from Long Beach to Downtown LA.

Only the middle class drives... if you're poor or rich, you pay someone else to drive for you :)

Good one! lol