Microsoft decided to hold the BUILD conference in Disneyland in Anaheim. The last time I was in Team Rodent territory (Carl Haissen’s choice term) was 1994, and I’d never got there from the airport.
It turns out if you’re going to go to Disneyland then you should fly into John Wayne airport, not LAX. It’s a hundred dollar cab ride from LA’s main airport to the rodent capital and I didn’t think the expense people would handle it, so I decided to go via public transport. Wrong choice as it turns out but an interesting trip nonetheless.
Travelling via public transport in LA is like wearing clothes at a nudist jamboree – it’s just not done. As it turns out a $5 day transit pass got me to the hotel with no problems at all, except the 2.5 hours it took to get there. I could have shaved an hour off the time by taking a cab but it was interesting to see how LA public transportation worked.
The city used to have one of the best public transit systems in the world, with trams and buses that ferried inhabitants quickly and cheaply across the city. LA is a huge sprawling place – the city just expanded to fill space, since it’s built on a desert, and transport is key. The after the Second World War a consortium, including oil firms, car companies and Goodyear, bought the public transport network and then shut it down. Car ownership rocketed, but anyone without the funds or inclination was screwed.
As it turns out the transit was fairly smooth. The train from LAX was fast, clean and not too crowded and the bus, while slow and late, proved adequate. The only problem was the time it took, but I’d charged my phone on the flight (Virgin America has plugs under every seat) and so had enough juice to enable ebook reading without having to manage runtime too carefully. If I lived in this city I’d have to have a car, but then again nothing on earth could persuade me to live in LA.
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