Underground public transportation around the world has one thing in common: mustiness. That warm, musty, stagnant, urban construction smell always rouses in me the distinct feeling that, yes, I am an adult, and I am urban, and I am efficiently traveling from one place to another with all of my other fellow, working adults. We, as subway riders, form one great proletariat mass, and we stick up our noses to those fancy gas stations!
Upon riding the L.A. Metro, however, I discovered that this great proletariat mass is actually rather small. In fact, taking the subway from Union Station on a Sunday afternoon, only a handful of other commuters joined me in patting ourselves on the backs for being silent protectors of the environment. Of course, I know that the L.A. Metro company supports my decision as ads suggest that by taking the Metro, subway riders are the most important people in the city, so beat that, Beverly Hills BMW!
Smugness, politics and pride aside, the experience of riding the L.A. Metro itself feels invigorating and productive. Unlike the subway in New York City, the L.A. Metro stations feel remarkably clean, modern and forward-thinking. The tiled ground is virtually clear of litter, and the stainless steel hand railings remain remarkably clean of smudges or mysterious stickiness.
No homeless people chant pleas for money or rant about the ineffectiveness of the government, and no shady characters with oversized coats and wide-rimmed hats seem to stalk through the train corridors.
In fact, more common than wide-stepping thugs or misanthropes are young siblings hopping up and down escalator steps traveling by themselves, old men with fanny packs strapped around their waists, and groups of teenagers toting shopping bags.
This demographic may simply reflect people afraid or unable to drive cars, but perhaps they, too, can continue to inspire movements to more readily utilize public transportation. Of course, living in a university community, we UCLA students merrily accept the notion that public transportation provides the answer to highway congestion and environmental ailments, but really, riding the subway is more than just a political or environmental benefit.
Amazingly, the Los Angeles Subway, known once as the “Pacific Electric Subway,” opened in 1925 and ran from Fourth and Hill Street in Downtown to Beverly and Glendale Boulevards. While this subway line closed in 1955 and was converted to buses, the Los Angeles County Transportation Committee began reconstructing what are now known as the Metro Blue, Metro Green, and Metro Red lines in 1976. Since 1993, the subway as we know it began to run in full, albeit still emptier of passengers, form.
What this history tells us is not simply that Los Angeles’ transportation planning was, and still is, disorganized, but ultimately that people in Los Angeles want to be connected and stay connected.
With a city that experienced massive growth in the mid-20th century with the growth of Hollywood and the film industry and expansion to California, finding ways to bring together a seemingly disparate city remains important, and while buses and shuttles essentially serve the same purpose, the subway seems the quintessentially most urban and efficient way of bringing the city together.
Perhaps classifying the subway in this way remains my bias, but archives detailing Los Angeles’s transportation history on the Metro Web site (www.metro.net) reflect that I am not the only one seeking answers on how to feel more at peace and more a part of this city that I temporarily call “home.”
After riding the subway and taking it to parts of downtown that I previously thought impossibly inefficient to reach via bus, my energy to explore feels revitalized.
Browsing through black-and-white photos of trains and Metro buses from the 1950s reveals to me that even though everyone in Los Angeles seems to be constantly moving, moving together provides a way of connecting us.
That marvelous musty smell is simply a perk.
If you appreciate the Metro and all it has to offer, contact Cohn at jcohn@media.ucla.edu.