I was warned beforehand, but of course I didn't believe.
In Los Angeles, you walk only if you're a hobo, an outpatient from a mental institution, or a tourist. The city is a nightmare done in all the shades of concrete and asphalt, the highways acting as the great veins along which the citizens of Los Angeles hurtle headlong in small baubles of metal.
The 710 meeting the 210, near Old Town Pasadena - the beauty
of concrete
I cannot drive a car. I don't have a licence, six months ago I didn't know what the order of the pedals is. This fact has generated much ridicule and odd looks in the people I've met in Los Angeles, in addition to a few shoulder punches accompanied with a laughing utterance of "Good one!". Alas, it's no joke, and as such a fact that greatly impairs my travels around the city.
It has been said that the average citizen of the US will not walk journeys greater than 60 yards but will instead drive them. This describes the US attitude towards cars perfectly: a car is not a mere vehicle, it is an extension of your home and your identity, and without one, something is lacking in your existence.
Or, as the case is with me, you're a weird foreigner.
Los Angeles used to have a functional public transportation system - in fact, the best in the whole country at the beginning of the 20th century. But as the city grew rapidly and sprawled over the hills to San Fernando Valley and beyond, bus routes replaced the venerable tram system known as the Big Red Line, and finally as the 50s hit and Amercians yearned for a personal form of freedom, the proliferation of cars saw to the end of the city's extensive public transportation. (The auto makers had also a hand in this, during the golden times of payoffs, blackmail, and zoot suits.)
The Hollywood Walk of Fame - not quite as glorious as one might imagine
Now, the mere size of Greater Los Angeles defies any attempts at creating a highly functional public transportation system. By car, residents regularly commute for over an hour to get to work, and that's only if they're lucky. Driving your car is seen as the sign of a personal, inalienable right to possess the capability to go anywhere you want, when you want. No wonder that every 17 years, your average American drives the distance to the moon.
As a result is one of my favourite LA oddities: all distances are measured in time, not in multiples of an unit of length. Were I to query the distance between, say, North Hollywood and Beverly Hills, I would receive as an answer something along the lines of "Oh, about half an hour." And there is no question that the time refers to the time taken driving there - after all, who on earth would walk, let alone take the nonexistent public transportation?
Speaking of transportation...I berate the good city of Los Angeles for lack of public transportation, while the opposite is true. However, the bus routes are few and far between, and with the distances one needs to travel in this monster of a city, it's highly unefficient. There is also a metro system, but it helps you only if you wish to travel from one specific location to another; on my humongous map of the city, the tracks are mere inch-long worms of insignificance. So while the metro is certainly clean, orderly, and highly recommendable mode of transport, it won't solve nearly all of your problems.
Hm. I guess I do need to learn how to drive, LA style.
