Transit Excursion - Christmas Shopping in LA

[nickv]

Transit Excursion - Christmas Shopping Errands in Downtown LA

On Saturday, December 8, one of many things that was on my agenda was to go Christmas shopping. Based on experience, Christmas shopping can often become Christmas headaches. But after reading articles over and over again on how taking transit can reduce the stress from traffic (ie. Christmas traffic), I decided to try something different. Instead of heading for the suburban shopping mall, I decided to take a different approach: Go to Downtown. Having Metrolink Weekends and the EZ Transit Pass program on our side, this shopping trip was everything except stressfull.

Early in the morning from the Oceanside Transit Center, I boarded the 6:27AM train to LAUS. Oceanside TC's new parking structure was near-empty. There were about 8 cars parked near the train platform (overnight parking is forbidden in the parking structure). Even though it was very on a weekend morning, about 40 people boarded the train.

The Metrolink train arrived at LAUS right on time at 8:19AM. I transferred to the Metro Red/Purple Line to Pershing Square and took a walk to Broadway.

At 8:35AM, about half of the stores on Broadway Av were already open. I got some gifts here and there and made my way northeast to Little Tokyo (my family is part Japanese) only to find out the hard way that most of the stores don't open for another 2 1/2 hours. At 9:15AM, I made my way back to Broadway & 6th via Metro Line 40. The bus was about 90% full and had no problems on the way. The bus did suffer from some vandalism on the windows and walls. The driver was very nice.

By then, most of the Broadway Av stores were open. The corridor was already busy with pedestrians, but not too crowded. Getting around and getting what I needed was fairly easy; much better than dealing with suburban mall traffic and long lines.

Around 10:20AM, I walked back to the Pershing Square Metro Station and rode to 7th St./Metro Center. I grabbed a quick bite at the food court near Macy's and rode the subway (which was SRO until it arrived at Pershing Square) back to the Civic Center Station where I attended a holy day religious service a block from the station until 12:00NN. Given that it was a Saturday, the Civic Center Station was very quiet.

Returning to the Civic Center station, the long escalator going down was undergoing repairs; so I took the elevator. The elevator had some very bad vandalism and body odor. A few of the call button lights were burned out too. From Civic Center, I went to Pershing Square.

I had about 25 minutes to do one more walk of Broadway Av before I had to return to LAUS to take the 12:45PM train back to Oceanside.

When I got back to LAUS at 12:30PM, police were present checking tickets on the platforms.

I planned on getting some shut-eye for the return Metrolink trip back to Oceanside, but I ended up talking to other passengers instead about many things including CA HSR. The train was running on schedule until Languna Niguel when the train had to wait for a late northbound Amtrak train to clear the single track. The delay wasn't a big deal at all: 7 minutes. I told the other passenger that I rather be here than battling the I-5.

Heading south into San Diego County, I saw rain clouds over Oceanside. Sure enough, the rain was coming down at the Oceanside Transit Center.

No doubt about it: LA's transit system helped take the headache out of Christmas shopping. If anybody's still got some shopping to do, try taking Metro into Downtown and arrive at around 8:30AM. It sure beats mall traffic and long lines at the big-box stores.

[bluelineshawn]

Nice report.

The only problem that I have when I use transit to shop is having to carry everything around all day. And carrying everything from the bus to the train to another train...so I normally drive unless it's just a couple of small items.

[kenalpern]

As with airports, I imagine that we'll see more lockers, either at transit stations or at stores, if people use transit more to do their shopping. I wonder how this sort of thing is done at New York or San Francisco, if there's much transit-shopping there?

Shall we coin a new term? Transit Oriented Shopping, or TOS?

[Transit Coalition]

Actually, you will not find lockers anywhere, any more due to 9/11. Yes, they used to existing at airports, bus and train terminals, but that is a historical concept. And I frankly don't see them coming back as a change.

[nickv]

Carrying the stuff around wasn't a big deal at all; in fact while I was waiting for the buses/trains I'd set them down on lap or near my feet if I was standing. I also set them down while I had lunch and riding the elevators. Plus, I was back on Metrolink by 12:45PM.

In lieu of lockers, I think transit shoppers can get away with using large wheeled bags/backpacks to transport their purchased items. The bags will have to be small enough though to fit on one's lap when on the train/bus. That might be the way to go for now since the problem of single-use plastic bags have been making the news lately. Many grocery stores that I've been to have been selling the cloth tote bags.

I've been making every attempt to use tote bags for my shopping trips lately.

[Mac]

This is also kinda why people usually don't take public transportation for shopping. Then again, if you drive to the mall, your gonna have lots of parking lot rage of a damn parking space.

[nickv]

Then again, if you drive to the mall, your gonna have lots of parking lot rage of a damn parking space.

No kidding. Lots of people have this "me-first" thing when it comes to parking at malls, grocery stores, and big box retailers; yet they don't understand that the shopping part involves much walking too.

Today, I went with somebody to a Wal-Mart to get a few household items and I decided that the best thing to do considering that close-up parking was not possible was to drop that person off near the front door, park the car in the "boondock" section of the lot, and do some walking. The walk to the front door was about 100 yards.

About a month ago, I had to drop off a heart monitor to the Riverside County Medical Center in Moreno Valley. I knew for sure that parking is a real problem at this place; so when I got into town, I parked the car on a public street near an upscale shopping center and boarded RTA route 20 for a 20 minute bus ride to the hospital. I got to meet a very nice bus driver on the way too and talked to a few of the passengers. The bus was very clean and there were about 20 passengers on board. The bus dropped me off near the front door of the hospital, and that errand was completed stress-free.

I do my best not to let parking stress ruin my day. I favor taking transit over driving for any trip. With this sprawling car-centric development, transit just doesn't work for every trip I have to do. Fortunately, we advocates are in a position to show our officials that we need a system where people can go to places without the car.

If I go anywhere and I know parking is going to be a problem, I'll do my best to go for transit, even if I have to drive my car for some of the way and park it. If public transit is not there at all or the schedule doesn't quite work, then I'll park in the boondocks and do some walking. I don't like playing this "me-first" game of finding the closest parking spot. If I'm transporting passengers, I offer to drop them off at the front door and then I'll park the car toward the rear of the lot.

This is also kinda why people usually don't take public transportation for shopping.

I have to do some studying on how the residents in Venice do their shopping since that city is carfree in its entirety except near the train station. I think their system works. The same goes for tourists who visit and buy things in Mexico, but park their cars on the US side.

[Mac]

Yet, the thing is, in most tourist places, and place were people don't use cars to go shopping, the area tends to be very walkable, and density is high. If you have a house and the supermarket is 5 miles away, you are most likely not gonna walk there. But if you are in a condo in the center of town, of coarse your gonna walk. This all has to do with how cities zone there land, and throwing in some mixed use development won't hurt either.