Mayor Karen Bass made good on her promise to ride the Metro with KNX News’ Craig Fiegener.
On Wednesday morning, Bass and Fiegener took the Expo line, starting on Exposition and Western, and went all the way to Little Tokyo.
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“It was an amazingly smooth ride,” Bass said. “What I was most impressed by was all the young people that were on the train. There was this one student [who] was going all the way from the Expo line to East L.A. College. If he had been in his car, it would have taken him over an hour to make that commute. He said it takes him 20 minutes every day and he rides for free.”
Bass and Craig also spoke with a student heading to Ramón C. Cortines School of Visual and Performing Arts.
“I go on the train every morning because my mom has to go to work in the morning and it's pretty cool,” she said. “The train comes very often, so if I miss one train it's like, ‘Oh, there's another one coming.’ So I never really get to school late and it's very efficient and I feel very safe.”
Bass, who serves as the chair of the L.A. Metro Board, has been vocal about wanting to get Angelenos on board with using Metro.
“We need more Southern Californians to view and use Metro as their first choice for transportation,” she said in the annual “State of the Agency” address in July.
Since the closure of the 10 Freeway through downtown L.A., Bass has been even more adamant in urging Angelenos to take advantage of public transportation.
“Angelenos, we need to take advantage of this situation,” she said. “It is a tragedy. There is no question about that. But you know what, it's going to take a while to repair the lot, to repair the freeway. So let's learn how to use public transportation.”
Bass said she felt comfortable with her experience on the Metro, and when Craig asked her where the next trip would take place, the mayor suggested Paris.