Blog: Missed the Bus
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Missed the Bus - Thursday, June 7, 2007
On Tuesdays and Thursdays I drive myself down to the Chatsworth Blvd. Park & Ride at St. Stephen's Lutheran Church, and then hop on the Commuter Express to go to work at UCLA. Today I did something that I've been fearing ever since I started my commuting regimen: I missed the bus.
I left home a couple minutes late, and as commuters know, a couple minutes can make all the difference. To make things worse, I had to park in a different parking lot than the one I've been using, because last time I got yelled at for unknowingly using the lot that's reserved for weekday staff. Unfortunately the smaller staff lot is never 1/4 full, and the much larger main lot was completely full. For such a small church, I wonder if it even gets that full on Sundays.
So by the time I had finished hunting around for a place to park, the bus had dutifully come and gone. It looked like I would have to take the dreaded 405 to work.
But as I continued down Chatsworth, I found out that there was no onramp on Chatsworth to get onto the 405, and I instead ended up hitting Sepulveda. Though I just as much dislike Sepulveda, I decided to take it all the way to work. The first 20 or so minutes went as expected: congestion, people driving way too slowly, and reckless hotheads cutting me off because I'm going too slow because of the people in front of me.
But after about Ventura Blvd., the traffic began to dissipate. By the time I got to Sepulveda's winding mountain pass, people were racing almost faster than the traffic on the freeway. Lots of twists and turns. Not many stoplights. It was almost kind of fun. By the time I got to UCLA, I had gotten there 10 minutes faster than if I had taken the bus.
So my little misadventure turned out alright. I know what I'm going to be taking next time I need to go that way during rush hour.
I left home a couple minutes late, and as commuters know, a couple minutes can make all the difference. To make things worse, I had to park in a different parking lot than the one I've been using, because last time I got yelled at for unknowingly using the lot that's reserved for weekday staff. Unfortunately the smaller staff lot is never 1/4 full, and the much larger main lot was completely full. For such a small church, I wonder if it even gets that full on Sundays.
So by the time I had finished hunting around for a place to park, the bus had dutifully come and gone. It looked like I would have to take the dreaded 405 to work.
But as I continued down Chatsworth, I found out that there was no onramp on Chatsworth to get onto the 405, and I instead ended up hitting Sepulveda. Though I just as much dislike Sepulveda, I decided to take it all the way to work. The first 20 or so minutes went as expected: congestion, people driving way too slowly, and reckless hotheads cutting me off because I'm going too slow because of the people in front of me.
But after about Ventura Blvd., the traffic began to dissipate. By the time I got to Sepulveda's winding mountain pass, people were racing almost faster than the traffic on the freeway. Lots of twists and turns. Not many stoplights. It was almost kind of fun. By the time I got to UCLA, I had gotten there 10 minutes faster than if I had taken the bus.
So my little misadventure turned out alright. I know what I'm going to be taking next time I need to go that way during rush hour.