Making My Way Around LA

Tuesday, October 04, 2005, at 07:24AM

By Eric Richardson

Yesterday I had one of those days that I like to think proves the point that indeed you can get around LA without a car. I started off in Norwalk, took a couple trips Downtown, and ended up in Hollywood to meet Kathy and her parents for a movie. The odometer on my bike, which recently I was saying was a little low to my liking at 356.2 miles, now reads 478.7 miles. That doesn't change my 10-week average much, but it's a nice little jump.

Counting miles on both bike and train, I think I travelled 62.9 miles yesterday. From this very crowded GmapPedometer map you can see all the different points of the city I moved through. It's not a perfect map, but I think it's interesting. After the jump I'll run through the different legs.

So yesterday morning I met my cousin at 9am at a Starbucks in Norwalk. That meant me getting up in the morning, hopping on the bike, riding down to the Blue Line's Grand Station, and then catching a southbound train to the Imperial/Wilmington transfer point. There I carried the bike upstairs and made some brake adjustments while waiting for the Green Line train to Norwalk. From the Norwalk station I took Hoxie up a few blocks to Firestone, took a left on Firestone under the 605, and was there. Total trip time is about 40 minutes. (Map)

Reverse trip on the way back, except I got off at San Pedro and rode up Main coming home. (Map)

But then I didn't stay in my apartment long. Instead I packed up my laptop and hopped back on the bike to head down to USC. I think I might be pushing a little harder on these trips now; my time from my apartment to Annenberg is down to 13 - 14 minutes, instead of 16. One class, then back Downtown for a few hours.

At 5:35 it was time to head back to campus for my 6pm class. I didn't time this one, but I didn't hit the lights quite as well so it may have been a touch slower.

Class got out early at 8:25, so I told Kathy I'd meet up with them at the Arclight for a 9:40 showing of Oliver Twist. My original plan was to just ride up to Wilshire/Vermont and hop on the subway there, but I was feeling good so instead I continued up Vermont to Sunset and then over to Arclight. It was a 7.55 mile ride, and counting time at lights it took 33 minutes for an average of 13.7mph.

After the movie I made the quick ride over to Hollywood/Vine, waited ten minutes for the subway, and made my way back Downtown. Then it was two blocks to my apartment and I was in the door around 12:40.