Mobility

She didn't last

After two weeks of riding the MTA, Daily News columnist and editorial writer Mariel Garza blogs that she drove her car.

"I need to drive for work," I told myself. It was true; I needed to zip from one end of the city to the other this morning. I suppose I could have charted out a complicated route using the bus, but I doubted I would have made it to the various points I needed to reach in time. Plus, I would be all rumpled and sweaty. That was my rationalization, anyhow.

The truth is, after two weeks of not driving, I missed my car. I missed gliding down the hot streets of L.A. inside my air-conditioned, hybrid-quiet bubble of steel. I missed, inexplicably, traffic. I missed cupholders. I missed drive-thrus. I missed blasting my favorite songs. I missed going where I wanted when I wanted, traffic allowing.

Oh, but the binge was good. I took the long ways. I didn't worry about making the lights. I yielded to other, clearly harried drivers. I played the radio. I went through the McDonalds drive-thru for a Coke. I called my friends on my cell phone, giddily admitting my transgression: "guess where I am."

So I fell. Tomorrow I will be back on the bus.

From June 1: Another one bites the bus. Meanwhile, Andrew at Here in Van Nuys calls it an urban myth that Angelenos are "too addicted to our cars to ever become a city of mass transit."

And: Red-light cameras for the Orange Line busway.


More by Kevin Roderick:
Standing up to Harvey Weinstein
The Media
LA Times gets a top editor with nothing but questions
LA Observed Notes: Harvey Weinstein stripped bare
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Obama returns Thursday, Trump (not) here Friday*
Hollywood versus the freeway that carries its name


 

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