All aboard

I've been commuting to work using LA's Metro system since August 2010, and in my short time as a regular user of public transportation I've learned a lot about Los Angeles, and about Angelenos in particular.  There are some beautiful parts of the city that in my previous life as a freeway commuter I never would have seen.  I've learned that most commuters friendly and kind.  They look out for each other.  I've seen a lot of beautiful places and acts of kindness from beautiful people.

I've also learned that some don't need a public restroom to relieve themselves in public, and that Santa Clause sells flashlights.  More on that later.

Most of my ride is spent on the Metro blue line, which runs from downtown Long Beach to 7th street station, just west of Union Station. The blue line is a major Metro artery, connecting the county's southernmost city, Long Beach, to downtown LA.  I then transfer to the purple line, which runs east from Union, intersecting the 7th street station and terminating at Wilshire and Western, one exit after my stop at Wilshire and Normandie.

The morning crowd is mostly business types: doctors and nurses, young men in black suits and new shoes, women in heels and skirts. College students toting backpacks and iPods talk quietly; single parents bring their children to the babysitter.  On a typical day, it's a mellow half-asleep crowd and there are plenty of seats.

The trains home are crowded.  The professional types from the morning keep to themselves, looking disheveled from their workday and making eye contact only enough to navigate to the train car door when it's their turn to disembark.  The rest of the crowd makes things interesting.  Young men walk the cars, selling bootleg DVD's and stolen watches.  Old women, with kids in tow, sell chocolate bars and chewing gum. Kids on bikes crowd the entryways, music blasting in their ears loud enough to hear several rows down.  The occasional crazy person serenades us with nonsensical musings of lives wasted, opportunities lost, or worse.

The PM crowd is like a tale of two cities.  The haves and have-nots.  The privileged and the used.  The hopeful and the hopeless.  It is Los Angeles.