Recently I traveled to the above mentioned cities and forgive me Los Angeles (where I currently reside) but I fell in love. It's wasn't just the physical beauty, the food, the culture, what sealed the deal for me was - yes - call me shallow - each cities public transportation.  Living in Los Angeles for the last 17 (gulp) years I have been married to my car for better or worse - a necessity in this sprawling city.  There are a few, including my husband who manage to go at least 75% of the time without a car - in his case relying on the bus system and a bicycle to deliver him to his destination. I myself have attempted to be a consumer of public transportation in Los Angeles but unfortunately with the exception of a few bus lines I have been left frustrated.
 
Take for example getting to the airport. San Francisco, Seattle and Portland all have bus and/or subway systems that enable a visitor to get to their destination without a car or taxi. Los Angeles well - a slightly different story. I live approximately 10 miles from LAX. Trying to do my part to cut GHG emissions on one recent trip out of town I was determined to take the bus to the airport - I mean why not? Can't be that difficult? 10 miles?  After working with the LA Metro Trip Planner it calculated that it would take me about an hour to get there and two to three bus changes. "Hello, Yellow Cab?"

Cut to arriving in Seattle on an unusually sunny fall day. Determined to not take a cab I ask about getting into town by bus or train. Voila! Take this Metro Transit bus and it will take you here, there, everywhere - all for the price of a donut - what could be better. And along the way - I get the benefit of seeing the sites and soaking in the local flavor.  Alas off to San Francisco for the holidays and again - the Bay Area Rapid Transit (i.e. BART) took me and my husband right into the heart of the city. Portland, ah, Portland, the crème de la crème of public transportation - their Max Light Rail system would make your mouth water.  
 
So what is a Los Angelite supposed to do - or others that live in public transportation disadvantaged cities? Perhaps what I should do (I'm thinking of this as I write) is give what the city does have a chance - a little love if you will. Maybe take the bus once a week? Take the metro on the weekends? Maybe all that's missing here is the will of the city's people to take advantage of a system that has been awarded "Outstanding Transportation System for 2006" by the American Public Transportation Association. Who knew huh?

Yes - L.A. does have a bus and rail system and it serves thousands of the city's citizens. However - for many of us - the system is inefficient - the bottom line is you simply can't easily get from destination A to destination B easily or quickly.  But that said, I'll give it a try . . . hopefully with more ridership the city's officials will finally bring to L.A. a new subway system that could be the envy of the nation's top cities. And then maybe I could finally profess my love to this much aligned city and say, like in the Randy Newman song "I love L.A.!"