Blogging Social Difference in L.A.: Week 10 - Bus Trip to Santa Monica

This week will be my last blog post. Since I had finished almost all of my requirements except for the bus trip, I decided to take a short journey to Santa Monica on the Big Blue Bus. I caught the #2 bus on the corner of Westwood Boulevard and Weyburn Avenue and rode it until the corner of 4^th Street and Wilshire Boulevard. The #2 bus is referred to as the Wilshire Boulevard bus on the Big Blue Bus’ website because it is their main line that travels down Wilshire into Santa Monica.

The Route of the #2 Bus

As a freshman and sophomore I would take the bus occasionally, but now that I have my car in LA I take it even less. To be completely honest, I had to look up the fare on my phone before boarding the bus because I didn’t even know how much it would cost. It turns out that it only costs a dollar for a one-way trip, which is a very affordable price. In fact, I was surprised that it is cheaper than the two dollar fare that I grew up with in Hawaii.

When I first boarded the bus I noticed that there weren't very many people on it. To be precise, there were 8 other travelers. All of the riders looked to be in the same socio-economic level and there was not much diversity when it came to race. Only two major ethnicity groups were represented – Caucasian and Asian.

Me on the Bus showing the date (12/8/12)

As we travelled down Westwood Boulevard and then down Wilshire, ridership did not increase very much. People got on and off, but there were never more than 10 people present on the bus. I think that this primarily has to do with the time and day of my trip, which was Saturday afternoon. I am bummed that I didn’t have time to take this ride during times when people commute or when the buses are very full because I feel as though I would have seen a much more diverse crowd if I had. I wanted to witness some form of segregation that Massey and Denton explained, but it wasn’t possible due to the fact I was not able to see any Caucasians or African Americans interact. In addition, all of the people traveling on the bus seemed to be traveling with someone else and it seemed like recreational travel rather than necessary travel.

My bus ride lasted around 30 minutes because there wasn’t much traffic. As we travelled further down Wilshire, the composition of the crowd did change a bit, but there weren’t any drastic changes. All in all, I got out of this bus trip that LA is made up of separate worlds. While I didn’t get to see as much social difference as I had hoped, my trip did still enforce this fact. Each party on the bus did not interact with any of the other parties. Each person kept to himself or herself and stayed in their separate worlds even though we were riding this communal resource.

I think what I have taken away the most from my blog this quarter is that LA is a city that has residents that are very detached from one another.  While there may be glimpses of communities, the majority of my sites involved very limited reactions between residents. In addition to this, some communities like Bel Air seemed to even discourage such interactions by having barely walk-able roads. I conclude this quarter by being able to confidently say that my experiences have shown me that Robert E. Park was right. The city is made up of many individual worlds, “which touch but do not penetrate” (Park).

Requirement: Bus Trip

Summary of Requirements:
Bus Trip: Week 10 - Santa Monica
Car Trip: Week 2 - Stanley Mosk Courthouse (15.9 Miles)
Walking Trip: Week 3 - Bel Air
15 Miles Away: Week 2 - Stanley Mosk Courthouse
Never Been Before: Week 4 - Sherman Oaks
Simply Maps: Week 6 - Response to Maddie
Social Difference News Story: Week 8 - West LA