u/uiuctodd

TLDR: every way to leave the airport seems broken.

Conclusions reached if you do not want to read the whole thing:

• LAX has given no good option to leave the airport except private cars parked there.
• LAX-it does not show up regularly and will not stop at terminals > 3 due to overcrowding. Expect it to leave you stranded at terminal 4.
• The M-shuttle will add 15 minutes to your commute, once you find one to board.
• A combination of K-line/Uber will likely not save you time over Uber alone in modest traffic. Though it might shave $30 off your fare.
• The FlyAway may still be the fastest way to get out of the airport, in spite of the the fact that there is no way to guess your wait time or traffic conditions downtown. (Depends where you are going.)

Longer story:

My plane was supposed to get me to LAX mid-afternoon yesterday. The fastest way home (Hollywood) for me is in a taxi. Like many people, the existing transit options just don't work well.

Options include:

• Taxi: 35 minutes at midnight, or an hour in traffic, or 1:15 in disaster traffic.
• Fly-away to Union (time unknown), Red line to Hollywood, walk 15 minutes with bags.
• K-line to someplace else. A new thing. I've wanted to explore this option for months, but I was waiting for the People Mover to open.

The flight was delayed and I was staring down peak traffic. My first choice leaving T4 was to turn left and get on the FlyAway, or turn right to LAX-it.

Observation number 1: Sadly, it's not possible to take whichever shows up first-- they are far enough away that you can't run at the first sight of a bus (nor read the bus signage). So you have to choose and get stuck with the consequences of your choice. I've had bad experiences waiting for the FlyAway (and also getting stuck in downtown traffic), so I turned right to LAX-it.

There was a crowd at the stop. Could be a good sign. Means a bus is about to come, right? Spoiler: not a good sign.

After about 10 minutes, I see an LAX-it shuttle coming. I was feeling smug, because no M shuttles had come, and no FlyAways had come. And then LAX-it shuttle went right by without stopping. We were terminal four. The LAX-it was full. By this point, there were enough people at the stop to fill an entire bus by ourselves.

Observation 2: LAX-it is only for people at the first few terminals. People at our terminal 4 left waiting for over 20 minutes (or longer-- I left). Also, gypsy cabs are working the crowd. It's the first time ever that I've been hit up by gypsy cab drivers at LAX. At least three. They have learned that the system is broken. Making a buck of airport incompetence.

Five minutes goes by. A FlyAway passes. Which means I made the wrong choice. There's now no way to avoid sitting on La Brea at 5pm.

Observation 3: All this time, parking shuttles to remote parking went by every few minutes. Also employee shuttles. If you want to drive your car to the airport and park in remote parking, LAX welcomes you. If you do not want to drive and park, LAX invites you to go FUX yourself. The airport will inflict suffering on you.

An M shuttle comes. The stops are close enough that you can stand at the LAX-it stop and run for the M-shuttle when you see it. By this point, I just wanted to GTFO of the airport, so I ran and jumped the M.

Observation 4: The shuttle to the M is bad. It has to weave through the shuttle lanes, same as the Fly-away and the LAX-it buses. Once out of the airport, there are several lights which we managed to always hit red, including two left turns with a protected arrow. Then it creeps into the train station. I would tend to guess that once clear of the terminals, M takes roughly twice the time as LAX-it. But I've never timed it.

The airport station is massive. I've seen all the videos, but I was still surprised by the scale. Taking the train requires a long escalator up, then a long escalator down. Did it really have to be that high up?

Observation 5: The K drives like a rocket. It showed up exactly when the station indicator claimed it would. No taxi has ever taken me North out of the airport faster, except maybe at 1am with an angry driver. (Nationality omitted, comrade). It is slightly slow through on the surface-running section through Hyde Park, but seems to have signal priority and moves faster than cars on the street. This is not your "Expo phase 1" experience.

On reaching Expo/Crenshaw, I was surprised how little it saved me on estimated Uber fares. It would have been about $70 from LAX. It dropped to about $40 at Expo.

Observation 6: Taking transit + Uber out of LAX does not save any time over taxi, nor does it save a whole lot of money.

At that point, I decided I was so deep into the story, I might as well take trains the entire way home. It was peak traffic. So I did Expo -> 7th Metro Center -> Red Line -> Hollywood -> walk. It was not a good idea. But at least I can say I tried it. Took about 30 minutes longer than FlyAway -> Red Line -> walk. Mostly due to the sloth-like Expo line stopping at lights.

Edit: Cleaned up some verb mistakes/typos.

Hello--

Two of us are going to the Kia Forum from different parts of the city. One from Pasadena. One from Hollywood. We want to arrive at about 7pm on a weeknight. It looks like parking for the event will be $50. Mmmm... delicious.

There aren't really decent transit options. But I'd be interested in places we could drop cars and split a rideshare. Does anyone have recommendations?

Edit: Solved! The suggested parking apps got me garage parking half a mile away. Easy 15 minute walk. Which is usually much less the time to drive that half mile before the show, or get out of the lot after the show.

I use charcoal-grey Chuck Taylor high tops as my "do anything" shoe. That means I wear them to work with jeans, to the gym, around town, into bars, casual restaurants, clubs, etc. I slip in a nice insole so that it doesn't feel like walking on a tire and I get arch support.

Obviously I don't wear then to dress up. I also have other shoes for specialty stuff (like hiking).

Here are things I like about them:

• The high rubber sole is good for wet sidewalks.
• The toe is enclosed by rubber (see below).
• They look good.
• They were previously a counter-cultural statement (though not really any more).

Why do I like the enclosed rubber toe? Because I have a weird reflex. Apparently my big toe curls up slightly when I step. So I will wear out the toe of a running shoe from the inside. I'll have a perfectly good shoe with a hole over the toe after a few months. All I know is that my grandfather had the same issue.

Also, when I was younger, I was a martial artist. I liked having a heavy rubber sole and toe so that I could defend myself in a street situation. But I'm not really great at kicks anymore. So I don't think that's relevant.

Here are things I don't like about Chucks:

• The price keeps going up. They used to be a cheap shoe, that when paired with an insole, made a cheap walk-around shoe. Now, they cost as much as athletic shoes.
• The quality seems to drop over time. For example, I used to be able to pull out the out-of-the-box insole and replace it. Then they welded it in to save a few pennies. Now the insoles I add don't quite sit right, as the old insole is still underneath.

So I am looking for:

• A shoe for walking around the city and using for all casual occasions.
• Pairs nicely with jeans.
• No flashy colors or branding. Something that says "basic".
• Good arch support, or else the ability to slip in an insole.
• A reinforced toe: rubber or leather covering the nail of the big toe.

Any ideas?

As I've mentioned before, I don't live here. I grew up here and come through regularly. But like watching one episode of a tv show each season, I'm missing major plot twists.

I am pruning evergreens. They are odd this year. First of all, there isn't enough new growth. Every year I get a solid bin pruned off. This year, a few handfuls.

Second of all, there are random brown spots. They are on multiple bushes in multiple places. It looks like last year's shoots were drought-stressed.

Before the wet spring, were we in prolonged drought last year? Anyone else with odd plant growth?