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Visiting Los Angeles without renting a car
- Thread starter T-Virus
- Start date
Bicycle to Rail is really viable now with all the metro rail expansions, but bicycling in LA is sketchy.
Fun though if you are brave and a good rider.
Fun though if you are brave and a good rider.
I used to do it every year for E3 and google makes it pretty easy. Obviously, it's going to be a lot harder to stay safe if masks aren't being enforced on public transportation but I don't have any knowledge on that. Uber and Lyft help plug the gaps.
Parking in LA can be a massive pain so I can understand not wanting a car.
Parking in LA can be a massive pain so I can understand not wanting a car.
I did this a few years ago! Or rather, I did half the trip that way. I didn't rent a car but my friends did. The first few days I was on my own, though. Your best bet is to make a list of what you want to see and figure out what's transit-accessible and what's not. You might luck out and everything you want to see has a bus or metro line near it, or maybe you're totally fucked. Really depends on what you want to see.
If I did it again, I would probably consider renting a car; I didn't want to this time because insurance for out-of-country seemed weird, I wasn't super confident in driving, and parking/driving during rush hour seemed like such a huge pain. But you can get around to more parts of L.A. than I expected on just transit. I stayed right by Hollywood/Highland station, so there were quite a few bus lines plus the metro. The bus was surprisingly not terrible, given how much I'd heard people shitting all over them. It does take a while, but it's a bus, what did you expect?
The first few days I was doing stuff like going downtown (Donald Trump had just been elected so I went to the protest) and visiting museums close to LACMA and the California Science Center, and transit was perfectly fine for all that. The worst trip was getting down to the Museum of Jurassic Technology from Hollywood, mostly because I missed my stop and walking between stops in that part of town is pretty lengthy and annoying. I think you can even make it down to Santa Monica via the metro, which is sweet.
That said, there are still lots of places that are going to be shitty to get to. My friends were staying in Silver Lake, and taking a bus from there at night is fine but buses aren't exactly frequent. Getting up to the Griffith Observatory is going to be terrible (though driving is shitty in a different way because of parking). A lot of studio tours are further out too. On one of our last days there my friends and I cruised through Laurel Canyon, and I'm pretty sure you're not doing that in a bus.
Oh yeah, that's the other thing. NOBODY USES TRANSIT. I mean, not literally no one, but it was rarely even close to crowded when I was using it. Coming from packed-like-sardines-all-the-time Toronto, it was blissful.
If I did it again, I would probably consider renting a car; I didn't want to this time because insurance for out-of-country seemed weird, I wasn't super confident in driving, and parking/driving during rush hour seemed like such a huge pain. But you can get around to more parts of L.A. than I expected on just transit. I stayed right by Hollywood/Highland station, so there were quite a few bus lines plus the metro. The bus was surprisingly not terrible, given how much I'd heard people shitting all over them. It does take a while, but it's a bus, what did you expect?
The first few days I was doing stuff like going downtown (Donald Trump had just been elected so I went to the protest) and visiting museums close to LACMA and the California Science Center, and transit was perfectly fine for all that. The worst trip was getting down to the Museum of Jurassic Technology from Hollywood, mostly because I missed my stop and walking between stops in that part of town is pretty lengthy and annoying. I think you can even make it down to Santa Monica via the metro, which is sweet.
That said, there are still lots of places that are going to be shitty to get to. My friends were staying in Silver Lake, and taking a bus from there at night is fine but buses aren't exactly frequent. Getting up to the Griffith Observatory is going to be terrible (though driving is shitty in a different way because of parking). A lot of studio tours are further out too. On one of our last days there my friends and I cruised through Laurel Canyon, and I'm pretty sure you're not doing that in a bus.
Oh yeah, that's the other thing. NOBODY USES TRANSIT. I mean, not literally no one, but it was rarely even close to crowded when I was using it. Coming from packed-like-sardines-all-the-time Toronto, it was blissful.
For the most part, yeah. It depends on where you want to go. Sometimes it's easier to take a Lyft or Uber, and sometimes it's easier/cheaper to take the bus or the metro rail.
Before quarantine, I'd take the metro rail to commute to and from work, and it was pretty good!
Traffic is terrible here (the main reason I don't miss driving), but public transportation is solid. It gets the job done, ultimately, though it can be so much better if they gave a shit about improving the service
Also just going to say that some of the Metro Stations I saw were beautiful. One of the Hollywood ones had the ceiling covered in old movie reels. I'm sure there's lots of not so nice stations but there were so many different little things to show off the city's history.
You can take a combination of Uber and Public Transit.
Frankly, if you're new to the area, you're better of renting a car or taking Uber/Lyft (and spending quite a bit of money).
If you're going to areas, like Hollywood, Santa Monica, Downtown LA, and a few more surrounding areas, you'll be find with public transit and Uber/Lyft.
Frankly, if you're new to the area, you're better of renting a car or taking Uber/Lyft (and spending quite a bit of money).
If you're going to areas, like Hollywood, Santa Monica, Downtown LA, and a few more surrounding areas, you'll be find with public transit and Uber/Lyft.
The pier would definitely be Santa Monica bus, 704 moves faster than the regular version.
Sunset strip is accessible on the Sunset bus.
Doable on transit, but for those spots I'd definitely be careful about the time of day as to not get caught up in rush hour traffic.
Depends on where you go. Downtown, Hollywood, hell yes expect to pay. Venice, Culver City maybe not so much.
You are gonna pay, but you can often find street parking which is not terribly expensive. If you park in a lot it is gonna cost a decent amount.
But OP - Don't be silly, LA is a car town. Just rent a car.
I'd get a car. Public transit is running on limited weekend schedule due to covid so there's less busses and subways running at the moment.
FWIW, due to covid street parking is free at the moment. Parking lots will cost you though, especially in the tourist spots like Hollywood and downtown.
