Where I Go: Transiting Los Angeles

We’ve Learned to See Our City Anew—One Route at a Time

Long before we started a travel blog, transit was what brought us together. We met as coworkers at an art museum in Los Angeles, and after work we’d take the same train back to Union Station, where we’d part ways and head in opposite directions. Our brief, shared section of our commute home was how our relationship started, joking about the absurdities of the job and sharing our interests. Pretty soon, we were waiting for each other after work to share as many moments on the train as possible. A …

Connect the World? The Bay Area Can’t Even Connect Its Trains

A New Light Rail System Underscores the Frustrations of California's Richest Region

The northern terminus of SMART, the new light rail system officially opening this weekend in the North Bay, is the Sonoma County Airport Station in Santa Rosa. But after my …

Even “The Girl From Ipanema” Can’t Save Rio’s Olympic Train

Why the Faltering Subway Line Exemplifies Brazil's Broken Promises

When the self-proclaimed greatest legacy infrastructure project of the Rio Olympics is a new metro line that stops eight miles short of the actual Olympic Park, you already know there’s …

Don’t Believe the L.A. Transit Hype

Slow and Cheap, the New Expo Line Will Dash Your Commuting Dreams

I wish this were a happy column about the advance of California public transit.

I wish I could report that my own life is better now that I ride the brand-new …

How Riding the Rails Can Change Cities and Lives

Don’t Judge L.A.’s New Train Lines by the Number of Cars They Take Off the Road. Their Potential to Nurture New Communities Is Incalculable.

What will the railroad bring us?

That was the question Henry George sought to answer for California in his famous 1868 essay, “What the Railroad Will Bring Us,” on the eve …

Where the Buses are Clean and Safe and the Trains are On-Time

New Metro CEO Phil Washington Shares His Vision for Transit in L.A. County

“Finish the job.”

That was the focused message of Phillip Washington, the new CEO of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro), before a standing-room-only audience a Zócalo/Metro event at …