The Brief

Los Angeles has long had a reputation for being smoggy and traffic congested. Angelenos in this sprawling, gas-guzzling city love their cars.

Of all people who commute to work, 89% take cars, trucks or vans, according to an analysis of census data. But there are other options, and a lot of time and money have been spent across L.A. city and county to expand our modes of transportation.

A push for more transit in LA

The new Metro rail map.

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Courtesy Metro

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There are six rail lines, which include four light rail lines (the A, C, E and K lines) and two rapid transit lines (B and D lines) that serve 101 stations from San Fernando Valley to Long Beach, and areas in between.

L.A. has one of the largest bus fleets in the nation with 2,320 buses and more than 100 routes. Plus, there are around 100 miles of bike lanes in the county, although not always connecting.

It's far from perfect, but there’s a big push to do more — and do better. LA Metro, the county agency that makes decisions about public transportation, has been on a mission to increase ridership.

For one, L.A. aims to be a zero carbon emission zone by 2050. Officials want to increase the number of Angelenos who walk, bike and use non-gas guzzling transit to 50%.

Another big reason is that the Summer Olympics and Paralympics are coming to L.A. in 2028 and officials aim to complete several transportation projects beforehand.

"The overall goal for the games for us is to enable all ticketed spectators to travel to the competition venues by public transit, or walking or cycling," said Ernesto Chaves, a senior executive at LA Metro.

Here are some of the ways Metro hopes to meet these goals:

• Provide residents with access to good transit choices within a 10-minute distance
• Reduce wait times for public transit to a maximum of 15 minutes at any time
• Improve the average travel time on buses by 30%

Still, even if all is achieved, the challenge of getting people out of their cars is very real.

Taking the bus

To understand this a little bit better, the How To LA team is turning the lens inward. Most of us (including yours truly) drive our cars all over town. But we want to be better. We want to mix up our transportation modes to be gentler on the environment, traffic patterns and our wallets.

I don't know about you, but it seems like a significant portion of our paycheck goes to gas every week. According to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the average hourly wage for someone who lives in the Los Angeles, Long Beach and Anaheim region is $33.43. The average gas price for the area is about $4.50 a gallon — less than it’s been but still more than a dollar above the national average.

So today we take a stronger step towards using public transportation. Today, we are learning how to ride the bus (we’ll tackle rail in another story).

How to LA producer Evan Jacoby and Aaricka Washington check out a bus route on an LA Metro map in Silver Lake

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Kenya Romero

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LAist

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There are 10 million people who live in L.A. County and, of those who commute to work, only about 4% take the bus, according to an analysis of census data.

It can be daunting. L.A. is a big place. You have to figure out where each bus is going and when. It can also take a lot of time and the bus isn’t always punctual.

To help us get over the intimidation factor we reached out to Eric Brightwell, a cartographer, bus advocate and a self-described adventurer, who has been car-free for 13 years.

The How To LA crew who joined the bus ride included me, producer Evan Jacoby, host Brian De Los Santos and social media editor Kenya Romero (because if not on Insta or TikTok, it didn’t happen, right?).

Here’s how it all went down:

11 a.m. download a transit app

We meet Brightwell in Silver Lake, where he lives and works, to figure out a good, scenic route for our 30-minute bus trip. He recommends we take the #4 bus line from the 99 Cent Store by the Sunset Triangle Plaza to downtown. He says it comes pretty often.

He told us to download a transit app to plan the trip. Transit apps like Google Maps, Apple Maps and Moovit can show you how to travel through the main areas of L.A. County. Since I’m a forever Google Maps girl, I stick with what I know. You simply tap in where you would like to go, click on the “directions” button and the app will show you various methods of how to get to your destination.

Host Brian De Los Santos and Associate Editor Aaricka Washington go in search of their bus stop in Silver Lake

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Kenya Romero

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LAist

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LA map maker Eric Brightwell talks to How to LA's Aaricka Washington about the pros and cons of riding the bus

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Kenya Romero

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LAist

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“So I'm checking my transit app, and it says [the bus is] coming in 10 minutes, and then again in 21 minutes,” Brightwell says.

Brightwell told us about his trips to Tokyo, Thailand and Barcelona where the wait times were much shorter than in the United States.

“The average wait for a bus in Barcelona is two minutes,” Brightwell says. “So you know, 10 minutes here. It's not the end of the world [but] it could be better.”

11:30 a.m. Buy a TAP Card or reload funds

A TAP card can be used to ride the bus, train or to check out an electric bike. For the bus, a single ride from Sunset Triangle Plaza to downtown costs $1.75. But you can add any amount between $2 and $300 to each card.

There are several places to buy or reload funds on a TAP Card. You can download the TAP app to your smartphone. You can type in your city, neighborhood or zip code on the website to find a TAP Vendor in L.A. County. There are also TAP Vending Machines at the Metro rail stations. Here’s how to find one.

You do not need a physical card. We download ours onto our phones.

If you pay online or through an app, you can use credit card, TAP account cash, Apple Pay, Google Pay or PayPal. Cash is accepted at TAP vendors, TAP Vending Machines and bus fareboxes. If you ride the bus again within the hour of your first ride, it’s free.

Here’s what else you need to know about fare capping. To incentivize ridership, LA Metro limits the amount of money one has to spend to ride the bus. Regular bus riders don’t have to pay more than $5 a day, or $18 within seven days. There are also reduced bus fares for seniors, people with disabilities, students and low-income riders.

The bus stop

The navigation on Brightwell’s transit app leads us to the #4 bus stop at Sunset and Maltman Avenue. We’re taking the downtown LA - Santa Monica local bus route.

As we wait, I have a question: how does the bus driver know we’re waiting on them?

“I always stick my hand out and wave,” Brightwell says. “There’s obviously a big group of people, but I try to make sure I get their attention. I have been sitting at the bench before and it just goes by and I'm like, ‘Oh, I guess I wasn't obvious enough about wanting to use that bus.’”

Good to know.

Brightwell adds that he takes the bus to get to specific destinations, but also to see the city — something he recommends to friends. He says just get on a bus and go somewhere; don’t transfer.

“From my place in Silver Lake, you can get on the bus here and go all the way to Burbank, to Glendale, to Americana, to Din Tai Fung, to downtown. All you have to do is just walk two blocks, pay $1.75 and sit down.”

Our bus arrives. It's 4 minutes late.

11:50 a.m Tap your card, take your seat, watch the city go by

The bus pulls up and we get on. We get out our phones, open up our digital Apple Wallets to “pull out” the TAP card and tap our phones on the bus farebox.

It’s not crowded at all — only six other passengers. We sit down in the middle of the bus and it takes off smoothly.

On our journey to Hill and Third Street downtown the bus makes 20 stops. As we rode along Broadway and then on Sunset Boulevard, Brightwell points out a few spots along our route and notes some of the history.

More than 130 years ago Rancho Los Feliz landowner Griffith J. Griffith (yep, that Griffith) and Charles Sketchley had a joint venture to raise and show off ostriches. According to Los Angeles Magazine, this farm and the Ostrich Farm Railway that helped get tourists back and forth from the farm, was how Griffith Park and Sunset Boulevard took shape.

“That was one of the major tourist attractions,” Brightwell says. “And I guess not just tourists, like, people that lived in Los Angeles were like, ‘let's go, go see those ostriches. It's the weekend.’ There’s history all around you.”

The Ostrich Farm Railway is now the stretch of Sunset Boulevard that passes through the hilly landscape of Echo Park and Silver Lake.

Along the route there were also a lot of murals I'd never noticed before.

There’s one vibrant “Welcome 2 LA” mural on 2702 Sunset Boulevard from artist Cache Uno that features cats and chickens.

“He’s a Guatemalan vegan artist, “ notes Brightwell. “He always has chicken motifs in his street art. You definitely notice that kind of thing if you’re riding on a bus or on a bike.”

As we continue down Sunset, he talks about businesses that have come and gone and points out the diversity of the strip: the Saint Andrew Ukrainian Orthodox Church and what used to be a Vietnamese Chinese market that’s now a food hall, the Little Joy bar.

“That is one thing that I love about the buses, you can drink and not drive,” Brightwell says.

12:09 p.m. End of the line

We get to our destination on Hill and 3rd. We pull the signal cord by the window to hop off of the bus.

In total, the ride took 19 minutes. We went through Silver Lake, passed El Pueblo and Chinatown and rode along Cesar Chavez and High Streets. I really think it would have taken me an extra five minutes to drive my car.

“It’s not a bad time, and it flew by pretty fast for me,” Brightwell says. “I will say it flies by faster if you have people you’re talking to, or if you’re reading a book.”

He says he’s lost track of the time before and missed his stop. His pro tip: pay attention once in a while, listen for your stop and set alerts on your transit app.

We walk to Grand Central Market for a bite. After lunch, we went to the bus stop at Broadway and Fifth and head back to our starting location.

Tips for riding the bus if you have additional needs

LA Metro has some accessibility goals that are currently underway. For those who are 50 and older, LA Metro has an On the Move Riders Program. To learn more, stay up to date and connect with a peer-to-peer travel training club, sign up for emails here.

Seniors and people with disabilities can watch this video to learn about how to ride the bus and rail. LA Metro can accommodate a variety of wheelchairs with a ramp device that lowers to the concrete so people can wheel themselves onto it.

Also, people who are 62 and older, disabled or are Medicare customers can apply for a Reduced Fare TAP card and save up to 80% off regular Metro fares. People with disabilities can ride the bus for 75 cents and and for only 35 cents on off peak times (weekdays between 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 5 a.m., weekends and holidays).

Familiarize yourself with your rights. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), transit providers must offer audible announcements about fixed route stops for those who are visually impaired or have other disabilities. Service animals are also welcome on Metro buses and trains. If you have any concerns or complaints about anything ADA-related, this site can help you navigate how to file a service complaint.

If you are a bike rider, there are racks for you on Metro busses. Make sure that you remove all of the loose items not attached to your bike and take them with you before securing your bike to the rack. LA Metro recommends that you monitor your bike while riding the bus, and that you tell the bus operator that you will be getting your bike from the rack when you exit through the front door. Find more safe bike tips from LA Metro here.

Pros and cons

As a frequent bus rider, Eric has some closing thoughts on what he thinks about the system — the good and the bad.

The upsides:

• Bottomline: “It’s good for the environment, it's good for the city, it cuts down on sprawl,” he says 
• You don’t have to worry about parking and driving under the influence
• It’s safer and cleaner on the bus than on the train 
• You get to experience the city in a way that you never would in a car because you can watch it go by

The challenges:

• Sometimes buses don’t stop 
• Wait times between buses are too long
• Buses can be late
• Buses can also get stuck in traffic in parts of L.A. 

What could improve:

• More frequent buses
• More dedicated bus lanes so buses can pass traffic
• More amenities at bus stops and train stations  

Extras are “severely lacking,” says Brightwell. “If you go to any East Asian city, like Taiwan, or Korea or Japan, at least I can say from personal experience, there's waiting rooms for women with kids and there's like feeding stations, self cleaning restrooms, vending machines at restaurants, bakeries, cafes, art galleries.”

In Closing

Of the How To LA group who traveled on the bus, three of us were pretty much newbies and I will say, despite its issues, we all enjoyed riding it.

Now, this was a pure pleasure ride. We were not on a strict schedule and did not need to be at our destination at a specific time. There were no real stakes involved.

It’s a different matter to use the bus for one’s daily commute.

But speaking for myself, I learned a lot riding with Brightwell and I got over the intimidation factor of using the bus to get around L.A. It’s actually pretty easy once you get the basics down.

I think I just might ride the bus to work next week!

For our next story on bus ridership. We are going to dig a little deeper into these challenges and what’s being done to address them and make the experience of riding the bus a better one.

If you’d like to share a story about your experience riding the bus, tell us here. We may include it in our next article.

Listen: How To LA rides the bus

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How easy (and fast) is it to ride the bus in LA? Well — that definitely depends. With more than 100 routes traveling all over L.A. County, it can be a little intimating to figure out where to go but if you're looking to save a little green for your wallet AND the planet, it's worth trying out!

HTLA's Aaricka Washington recently rode her second-ever bus in L.A., and she brought the team along with her for the ride. We go from Silver Lake to her home neighborhood of DTLA, and along the way we learn about what makes LA's bus network an imperfect jewel in the world of public transit, at least according to one regular user and self-described city  explorer. 

Guest: Eric Brightwell, neighborhood cartographer and avid bus-goer.

Wanna Go Car-Free? Try The Bus

How easy (and fast) is it to ride the bus in LA? Well — that definitely depends. With more than 100 routes traveling all over L.A. County, it can be a little intimating to figure out where to go but if you're looking to save a little green for your wallet AND the planet, it's worth trying out!

HTLA's Aaricka Washington recently rode her second-ever bus in L.A., and she brought the team along with her for the ride. We go from Silver Lake to her home neighborhood of DTLA, and along the way we learn about what makes LA's bus network an imperfect jewel in the world of public transit, at least according to one regular user and self-described city  explorer. 

Guest: Eric Brightwell, neighborhood cartographer and avid bus-goer.

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About 15% of California households lack access to high-speed internet, according to the latest report from UC Riverside. Researchers pointed to affordability as one of the biggest barriers to closing the persistent digital divide.

Edward Helderop, associate director at UCR’s Center for Geospatial Sciences and report author, told LAist that the findings weren't surprising.

“A lot of American households and California households don't have high-speed internet available at home,” Helderop said. “It's sort of just an unfortunate reality that that's the case for the state of California.”

What does the report say? 

Nearly one in seven households in California doesn’t have reliable internet access, according to the report. The biggest barrier continues to be affordability. Even in urban areas, like Los Angeles, where broadband internet is more widely available, the average monthly cost can range from $70 to $80 per month.

But in rural areas, broadband internet is still widely unavailable because of a lack of infrastructure investments from private companies. Only two-thirds of rural households have broadband access at home.

“This digital divide represents not just a technological failure, but a profound barrier to economic opportunity, educational advancement, and civic participation that undermines California’s potential for shared prosperity,” the report states.

Experts also call for mandatory broadband data transparency — internet providers should be required to publicly disclose their service speeds, pricing, reliability metrics and coverage areas.

“Private telecom companies administering the service, they're under no obligation to maintain publicly available data sets in the same way that you might get with other utilities,” Helderop said. “There are issues with the fact that the advertised speeds don't really match up with the actual speeds that people experience at home.”

Researchers also recommend that broadband providers be regulated as utilities, like water and power, monitoring rates, quality and service obligations.

“When we regulate something like a utility, it comes with a few regulations that we take for granted,” Helderop said. “Something like a universal service obligation, in which the utility … their primary motive is to provide universal service, so to provide the service to every household in California.”

As a public utility, officials could ensure that providers are offering the same type of service to every household in the state, as well as regulate rates.

Why it matters 

Norma Fernandez, CEO at Everyone On, said access to affordable, high-speed internet is a basic necessity.

"Still, too many families, particularly those in under-resourced communities, predominantly of color, are still left out,” Fernandez said. “Expanding reliable connectivity means addressing affordability, investing in community-centered solutions, and ensuring that digital access is part of every policy conversation."

Digital equity advocates say they see the need from local families every day, but available data doesn’t reflect that.

“On the maps, families appear to live in ‘connected’ neighborhoods, but in reality, they still can’t afford to get online because the monopoly provider’s plans are unaffordable,” Natalie Gonzalez, director at Digital Equity Los Angeles. “The provider-reported broadband maps don’t match what residents experience on the ground, and that gap has real consequences.”

In L.A., for example, hundreds of thousands of households lack reliable internet, but only a fraction qualify for public funding because available data says they’re already served, Gonzalez added.

“Public investment alone doesn’t guarantee equity if the underlying data is flawed,” Gonzalez said. “When the only data regulators have come from the providers themselves, the providers end up defining reality. Communities are then forced to prove they’re disconnected, without access to the same information the companies use to claim coverage.”

Cristal Mojica, digital equity expert at the Michelson Center for Public Policy, said pricing data is intentionally obscured.

“It makes it harder for people to shop around between internet plans,” Mojica told LAist. “It makes it really challenging for our state legislators to be effective and make effective decisions around affordability when they have to try to dig around for that information themselves.”

What’s next? 

California has already invested $6 billion for broadband –called the “Middle-Mile” project –through Senate Bill 156. The 2021 law is the largest state investment in broadband in U.S. history to get more people online.

Helderop explained that broadband investments are typically made possible through grants or loans to private telecom companies, making the state’s investment critical.

“It's the first time that any state, or any government in the United States, is taking it upon themselves to build and then own the infrastructure at the end of it,” Helderop said. “I would say that's probably the primary reason that we don't have universal broadband available to households in the United States right now.”

When completed, the “Middle-Mile” project will open markets to new providers and reduce monopolies, Helderop added.

Playboy founder Hugh Hefner’s widow, Crystal Hefner, is raising the alarm over her late husband’s foundation collecting about 3,000 of his personal scrapbooks and his diary, which she says contain thousands of nude images of women, some of whom might have been minors at the time the photos were taken.

In a press conference Tuesday, Hefner and her attorney, Gloria Allred, announced they’ve filed regulatory complaints with California and Illinois attorneys general, asking them to investigate the foundation’s handling of the scrapbooks. The complaints were filed to both attorneys general because the foundation is registered to do business in California but incorporated in Illinois.

“I believe they include women and possibly girls who never agreed to lifelong possession of their naked images and who have no transparency into where their photos are, how they’re being stored or what will happen to them next,” Hefner said.

She added the diary includes names of women he slept with, notes of sexual acts and other explicit details.

Hefner said she was asked to resign from her position as CEO and president of the Hugh M. Hefner Foundation on Monday after raising concerns about the materials. She said after she declined to resign, she was removed from her role.

She said she was told the scrapbooks may be in a storage facility in California. Allred says they were informed that the foundation plans to digitize them, but it’s unclear what it plans to do with them.

“This is not archival preservation. This is not history. This is control. I am deeply worried about these images getting out,” Hefner said. “Artificial intelligence, deepfakes, digital scanning, online marketplaces and data breaches means that once images leave secure custody, the harm is irreversible. A single security failure could devastate thousands of lives.”

In addition to asking for an investigation into the foundation’s handling of the materials, it also asks the attorneys general to take appropriate actions to secure those images.

LAist has reached out to the Hugh M. Hefner Foundation for comment.

Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, is leaving the agency, the department confirmed on Tuesday.

McLaughlin has become the public face and voice defending the Trump administration's mass deportation policy and immigration tactics over the past year.

"McLaughlin started planning to leave in December but pushed back her departure amid the aftermath of the shootings of U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal immigration officers, according to the people briefed on her exit," DHS said in a statement to NPR.

POLITICO first reported her departure. It is not clear where she is going next, or who will become the agency's next spokesperson.

McLaughlin's exit comes at a tumultuous time for the agency. DHS is currently shut down after lawmakers failed to pass a budget to fund it through the end of the fiscal year in September.

And high-ranking immigration officials, including DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, have been summoned to Capitol Hill to testify on the immigration crackdown after immigration agents shot and killed Good and Pretti in Minneapolis.

McLaughlin has been among the most public-facing agency spokespeople, participating in several network interviews. Beyond speaking on DHS' immigration initiatives, McLaughlin also fielded interviews and questions about Noem's handling of national disaster relief and resources, and other parts of the sprawling agency.

Noem praised McLaughlin's work in a statement online, saying she "served with exceptional dedication, tenacity, and professionalism."

"While we are sad to see her leave, we are grateful for her service and wish Tricia nothing but success," she wrote on the social platform X.

Immigration has been the largest part of McLaughlin's portfolio. She often took to network shows and to social media to promote immigration arrests made by the administration, defend actions by DHS agents, and encouraged immigrants to "self-deport."

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries praised news of her departure online; "Another MAGA extremist forced out of DHS. Noem next," he posted on X.

Most recently, McLaughlin defended Noem's description of Pretti as a "domestic terrorist" after Customs and Border Protection officers shot and killed him — claims that eventually drew sharp scrutiny from lawmakers, including some Republicans.

"Initial statements were made after reports from CBP on the ground. It was a very chaotic scene," McLaughlin told Fox Business late last month. "The early statements that were released were based on the chaotic scene on the ground and we really need to have true, accurate information to come to light."

During last week's congressional hearings, the heads of Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement both denied that they, or anyone under their chains of command, had given Noem information to substantiate that claim that Pretti was a domestic terrorist.

An NPR analysis published in January showed that DHS has made unproven or incorrect claims on social media or in press releases when describing immigrants targeted for deportation or U.S. citizens arrested during protests.

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