Zen in the Art of Travel Behavior:
Using Visual Ethnography to Understand the Transit Experience

I know the bus always stops by that tree, even if there's room in front of it nearer the intersection. Because the bus only runs 4 times per day, you always know who the bus driver will be, and so you know all the driver's quirks. Like, I know he stops at that tree... and that I have to be kind of aggressive about reminding him where I need to get off the bus.

This morning I got coffee from the Coffee Bean that is right behind me in this picture... it's about 10 paces from the bus stop, but I generally prefer to get coffee a few blocks away at Bottega Louie. Today, however, it was raining and I was in a rush, so I had to go here.

The bus is usually pretty empty... and I pretty much know everyone who rides it... at least I know their faces. Some of the riders know each other and have conversations on the ride in to work. A lot of admin assistants at law firms in Century City ride this bus (they pick it up at Union Station -- I think most of them ride in on the Metrolink)... their chatter reminds me of riding the subway in NYC when I lived there... you always got juicy office gossip about an office you have no connection to. For the next 40 minutes, I played crosswords on my smartphone. I wanted to take a screenshot (I did really well) but I couldn't figure out how to do that.

Here's where I get off. I'm the only person I've ever seen get off at this stop. The Commuter Express bus only makes a couple of stops, and this is one of them. If I take an earlier bus with a driver who doesn't know me, I REALLY have to be aggressive reminding them "hey, there's actually a stop at Beverly Glen -- I know, I know, you've never had to stop there before, but that's where I'm actually going to get off."

This part of my long walk from the bus stop to UCLA annoys me because I have to walk down a hill then up it and then down another one.

I always think this house looks like it's straight out of a Disney movie. I like it.

I like to cross this intersection diagonally -- because of the way the two streets come together, the diagonal is shorter than either of the two straight-across crosswalks. Plus, it just feels efficient. If there's a lot of traffic on a given day, I won't cross diagonally, and then I feel like I've failed.

When I lived in West Hollywood, I would bike to UCLA every day. It was a really nice bike ride, except for this damned hill, which was really pretty tough. Now I walk up the hill. Sometimes I get winded.

I HATE CROSSING HILGARD. This intersection is awful. I really really hate it. I hate that I have to press a damned button in order to cross. I hate that it takes MINUTES for the signal to change to walk. I just hate it. Things that I hate about it: 1) when you press the button and wait and wait and wait and wait and wait 2) when someone sees their bus coming and just dashes out into traffic in order to catch the bus 3) when you press the button a second after the cycle that would have given you a "walk" signal, but you missed the window of opportunity, so your request-to-walk gets put into the queue for the next cycle. This makes me go blind with rage.

Another photo of the hated Hilgard / Wyton intersection.

The School of Public Affairs has the worst elevators. Today everything ran smoothly, but sometimes it feels like they're just plain haunted.