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

I like walking by this building, which used to be the Warner Brothers' downtown HQ... now it's a jewelry center, just like every other building in this part of downtown.

Where I get my coffee most days... expensive but pretty good. Today I was commuting quite a bit earlier than usual (7AM instead of 8AM) and so they weren't quite set up yet.

I have to say, seeing this sign was pretty exciting. I like being able to walk around downtown and see all the stuff that is opening up soon...

Every morning, I use this as a shelf for my coffee... it's a bit of the side of the building by my bus stop. It's filthy, but what're my options? Sometimes if this ledge is exceptionally filthy, I will use the newspaper box in the background as my coffee shelf. I need a coffee shelf because I always have to sift through the contents of my backpack to find my bus tickets.

Not a bad deal...

I like that my bus stop is busy... there are a lot of regulars that I know by sight, and a couple of people that I've spoken to briefly before (usually because some sort of crazy behavior prompts conversation -- as when this morning a homeless man was yelling BEEP BEEP as he walked by us all.)

(This is the pocket of my shirt... with change in it.) I usually try to remember to bring 35 cents in change with me so that I can jump on the DASH bus if it's coming as I'm walking to my main mode of travel, the Commuter Express bus. The walk is pretty short, and so I usually don't take the DASH, but it's nice having the option...

I totally forgot that Wilshire was going to be closed this morning for the President's motorcade. My bus had to take a really roundabout route, and then it turned out there was no way to cross over the street anyhow... for about an hour! I waited around here... it was sort of stressful because I had a lot of work to do...

I couldn't take a picture of what I did on my 50-minute bus ride, because I was editing my powerpoint presentation (for a lecture today) on my phone -- my phone which is also my camera. So here is a picture of the powerpoint presentation from my work computer.

Luckily there were some fairly comfy steps to wait on...

...and I got to see the President's motorcade!

After these motorcycle cops passed by, we waited around for about 10 minutes while the motorcade went to LAX, then they let us cross the street... and on to work.