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

The 181 route comes from the Northeast LA side which includes Eagle Rock and the City of Glendale. The mix of people is big. There's lots of age and ethnic diversity.

Again, the stigma about taking the bus seems non-existent on this line.

He was very nice, although the ones on this line tend to be very courteous and customer service oriented.

Got a picture of the bus as it was driving away while I waited for the light to cross and head down to the Vermont/Sunset Metro station to continue my commute to work.

Although the walk is only about 2 blocks with generous sidewalks, they are long blocks and they have many tree roots buckling the sidewalk. Towards the end of this block there are two curbcuts for two different banks that are always very busy with cars going in and out making it dangerous for pedestrians to cross.

The curbcuts are side by side for the two banks but that really just results in playing the extended, real life version of "Frogger." In the morning, crossing this is not really bad but in the evenings when the banks are about to close, its mayhem.

As you can see, it has very generous sidewalks surrounding the station. It lends itself to a large pedestrian activity hub. Because there are many lines that stop here, there's a large amount of street activity. The Kaiser and Children's Hospital are also here so that adds to the vibrancy. There are regular street food vendors that help add life here. There are only a few bike racks and two actual bike lockers at this station above ground.

Sorry for the blurriness. It looked clear before my coffee.

I usually go to the end of the platform because the cars in the front are the least crowded in the morning. Today I had the luck of having a swarm of sheriffs ticketing the man in the white t-shirt and jeans. He didn't seem to be disruptive with the 8 officers around him.

I'm not sure what the incident was but it seemed that it was a simple not having paid for your Metro ticket situation. The response seemed overboard for the violation. After taking this photo, the sheriff man here on the left came over and reminded me there was no drinking or eating in the station after seeing my travel coffee mug in my hand. I'm guessing he was annoyed I took his picture.

After the ticketing was done, the officers moved down the platform and huddled around to chat.

According to this monitor, it was about 4:30 in the morning. And the train was coming. But it wasn't.

Just chillin... waiting for the train.

Finally....

So the officers split up and each went into different cars on the train and started checking everyone's tickets.

Its always fun to me to see people taking advantage of their time on the train, either working on their laptops or reading.

Excited to see what was going to be put in. :)

Destination reached!

Lots of folks take transit instead of a cab or other car to get to and from the airports at this station. Always see lots of folks with luggage proving not only its it feasible to do it but seemingly very accessible. :)