Almost everyone waitin
g here is a student at the nearby high school.
As the bus pulls into the stop, we line up to enter. School is just out, so no one is picky about where they are sitting. I think that everyone is just grateful to not be standing. It is common at this time of day to see the bus so crowded that students begin to more closely resemble sardines. Watching the passengers fill out the seats is a bit like watching students fill a class room, one in the back, the next the front, the middle, and in the back again, as if they're making sure that each person maintains a minimum distance. There is no hesitation or searching for seats, again, much like students, the passengers already know where they are going to sit. The bus itself smells like heavy perfume and, oddly, orange juice.
Today, I'm taking the 240, which runs down De Soto until it connects to the Orange Line, which in turn runs across the valley, East to West. I'll be riding the metro trains from one end to the other. My bus will drop me at the Orange Line, and from there, I'll be taking the Red Line subway system. The Red Line begins in North Hollywood, and will take me to 7th street in down town, where I will transfer to the Blue Line. The Blue Line, in turn will take me all the way from down town L.A. to down town Long Beach. It is a three hour trip from beginning to end, and one that I am already familiar with.
The Orange Line is unique from the other lines I'll be taking in that it is not an actual train. The route consists of a double length bus in its own special lane that runs roughly along Chandler street. The stop I wait at is located on De Soto and Victory, at the back end of Pierce College. About half of the students that were with me on the bus trip now wait with me for the next bus, which runs about every five to ten minutes this time of day. The Orange Line is significantly new er than the busses that traverse the streets, the seats are colored and the overall design is something more modern. Younger bus riders, myself included, seem to gravitate more toward the back of the bus, perhaps to distance themselves from the authority of the driver. Most of the riders are young, either high school or college students, but this may be due to the time of day. Still there are a few older individuals, and the contrast between youth and age on this bus is apparent. The young are well dressed for the most part, while the older passengers wear clothing with signs of wear, cheaper materials, and clearly less attention paid to their overall look. The man sitting next to me is wearing a greased up blue jump suit, with the trade mark name tag patched to the upper right of his chest. He sits with a back pack and begins to take out tools and examine and fiddle with them. My best guess is that he is an auto mechanic, and the irony of a mechanic without a car is not lost to me.
After about forty-five minutes we arrive at the Red Line station. By this time, most of the youngest riders have gotten off of the bus to head back to their houses, and what remains are a large group of college students from both Pierce and Valley college. We cross the street in mass and descend the longest escalator I've seen outside of Universal Studios to wait for the next subway train. The air is surprisingly well ventilated, and the deep underground the temperature is cool, safe from the sun. I'm grateful to be waiting underground. When the train arrives, the doors open, and after metro authorities do a quick sweep of the train, we are allowed to seat ourselves while we wait for the train to de part. The trains are in a state of disrepair, seats are stained by years of use, names and messages are scratched into plastic and glass, and permeate marker murals the seat next to mine. I sit across from a single Hispanic mother and her two sons who swing in circles around the pole at the end of the car.
The riders here are different from those on the previous busses. They are older on average. Most between twenty and fifty, and some who are old enough that I assume them retired. The first of the homeless riders that I have seen today sits aboard the car next to mine. And older man, maybe fifty with a torn back pack and a bicycle. At the Hollywood and Vine station, beautifully decorated by old movie reels, which cover the walls and ceiling, two drunken Hispanic men board. They pass between them a 750ml bottle of some hard liquor that I don't recognize. After a few minutes, these men are clearly drunker than when they had boarded. The mother across from me reels her children in closer to her, and just in time. One of the drunken gentlemen has just thrown up on the floor of the train. Striking to me, he has dropped some change from his shirt pocket in the process, which lands straight in his own expulsion. I watch the faces of other riders cringe as he bends down to collect his vomit covered coins. I find myself grateful that my stop is almost here.
At Seventh Metro station, I exit the subway, and make my way upstairs to the Blue Line platform. The crowd here is too big for an actual count. I manage to grab a seat for myself just in time to hand it over to the mother that I shared the Red Line with. The Blue Line is a train that rides at surface level, and at some points higher than street level. It will take me through down town Los Angeles, pass through Compton and Gardena, and finally deposit me on First Street in Long Beach. These trains are in even worse condition than the Red Line cars. They have been in continuous use for many years, and like the clothes of many of my fellow riders, they show their wear. The line itself makes an ethnic shift from being primarily Hispanic to being at least half African American.
Here, on the Blue line, as it makes its way though Compton, I find what I came to write about. Here, above all other lines, the inequalities presented by our transit system become apparent. Clothing is tattered in older patrons, and the younger ones wear obvious knock off bags. Several small African American children have walked the cars with their older brothers or fathers selling candy bars to raise money for youth programs or schools. A man traverses the rows selling bootleg movies burned to DVDs. A woman calls him over to ask if has anything by Spike Lee films. A young white man in his early twenties, unshaven and dirty, wearing a torn hoodie and ripped blue jeans asks other passengers for changes as he wheels his bike along the car. He uses each stop as an opportunity to shift over to the next car for a fresh batch of people to solicit. Finally, with a few other passengers, I reach the end of the line, and exit to down town Long Beach.
Abstract
One of the most discussed issues pertaining to urban ethnography since the onset of the discipline has been that of inequalities. Friedrich Engels (1845) described the formation and layout of the great cities of England and how they demonstrated the inequality of the cities inhabitants. Though both purposeful planning and tacit understandings, the cities divided themselves into areas for the rich and areas for the poor. Engels described in great detail how it was that the poor were kept from the sight of the rich. The facades of avenues in which the rich shopped or took their leisurely strolls themselves hid the slums of London just out of sight. An aristocrat could be shopping not one hundred feet from an industrial factory housing the miseries of the working class and never know the better.
Since Engels, may have endeavored to explain the development of urban zones through the lens of social inequality. David Harvey (1973) describes the development of cities as a process of capitalism. Cities are built on inequality, they are centers for the exploitation of labor. He describes urban space as being directly under the competition of Capitalist forces, such that individuals and firms compete for ideal land usage within a city. Competition in itself is a mark of inequality, it essentially announces one party a winner and one party a loser.
If public transportation systems are part of the urban environment, examining them will provide us with some valuable insight into how exactly inequalities play themselves out in the lives of city dwellers. We should, by examining the patronage, history, and context of public transportation be able to glean some knowledge on how the inequities of metropolis manifest themselves. The problem comes in exactly how it is that we can measure inequalities.
Methods
The majority of my research on passengers was conducted on the bus route that I take from my apartment on De Soto and Lassen in Chatsworth to the corner of Reseda and Plummer, in Northridge. The stop I used is in a prime location for studying the younger patrons as it is located in close proximity to a high school. This allowed me to build some familiarity with the other riders, whether though actual contact or though observation, I was able to recognize some of the frequent riders, as well as observe where they frequently went using the bus. Because of the limited scope of my 15 minute bus ride, I also spend one day taking a trip from my apartment through the entire metro rail system. This was a three and a half hour trip from Chatsworth to down town Long Beach. I chose to undertake this trip in order to have a better grasp on the general ridership of the Los Angeles metropolitan transit system.
The method I chose to initially conceive of whether or not metro riders were in a situation of inequity was to conduct a series of short surveys designed to do two things. Firstly, the most important question on the survey was, "Do you have a primary mode of transportation (car, truck, etc.)?" This question allowed me to know whether the individual on the bus was taking it by choice, or because they had no other mode of transportation. Secondly the surveys asked questions on age, occupation, and ethnicity. The question of occupation allowed me to judge further whether the individual on the bus was likely able to have another mode of transportation. Ethnicity, though perhaps not politically correct, factors very clearly into the question on urban inequality. Finally, age was an important factor to me. Later I will argue that youth in the city is another group of people, less often talked about, but equally marginalized.
The almost unanimous result of my surveys was that individuals riding the metro did not, in fact, have a primary means of transportation. All but one rider admitted that if they had a vehicle they would not be on the bus, but would rather be driving. From these results, I have omitted all individuals under the age of 16, as they are un able to drive any way. Roughly 80% of my fellow passengers were of Hispanic descent, this would be a reasonable explanation for half of the entertainment on the busses being broadcast in Spanish. The rest were a mix of Indian, White, and Asian, and in this area only very few riders were African American. These statistics are heavily biased toward my location, however, and if I were to publish this paper ever, I would definitely spend more time in different areas of Los Angeles to get a more accurate demographic. As I mentioned before, most riders during the day were of high school age, i.e. between 14 and 18, and most were 16. Occupations varied among o lder riders, of note though perhaps obvious, there were no people that I spoke with who occupied any positions of high pay. The most common occupation outside of student was actually unemployed. Again, at this point, I feel that I should assert that I have a very limited sample.
The limit of my own bus route prompted me to achieve the second set of field research which spanned the entire metro rail system. Demographically, they were actually for the most part similar, with the exception that once the train hit the Blue line, diversity came into play. On the Blue Line, Hispanic and African American ridership was closer to being equal. Also, as the lines made their way through the down town area, more Whites and other ethnicities were present. The average age of riders increased as I moved from the bus to the rails, no longer students, most riders were adult, spanning the spectrum of ages, but more concentrated on the ends.
I conducted a small number of short interviews with both metro patrons, and individuals I knew not to be bus riders. The questions I concerned myself with in interviews with bus riders were rather similar to the questions in my surveys. I did not feel it appropriate for my research topic to concern myself heavily with some of the more cultural aspects of ethnography. This was decided carefully as I went about my field notes. Originally I took notes on everything I could think of or notice, activities of riders, seating positions, numbers of individuals entering and exiting the buses. I realized rather quickly that a woman putting on acrylic nails on the bus was hardly relevant to the topic of inequalities. For individuals that I knew not to ride the bus, I also had a simple question in mind, why do they not ride the metro? By understanding why it is that individuals chose not to ride the bus system, we can better understand what kinds of ideas people with more access to resources, such as vehicles, have about transit systems, and subsequently gain yet more valuable insight into how these systems present inequality.
My first interview of note was with a CSUN student that I happened to share the bus with. Micha was 24 years old and had just moved in with her uncle. She did not have any means of transportation other than the metro, but was the first person that I talked to that said she would likely take the bus anyway. Micha enjoyed bicycling to and from bus stops and around the campus, and so the metro to her was a positive part of her day. What was striking to me about this individual was the story she told me about her metro experience. She recounted for me an event where a "weird guy" was harassing the bus driver. She went on to explain how she was genuinely very afraid of him, and ran home when he got off at the same stop as her. The thing she claimed to like best about the bus was that it was better than the busses where she was from, which was originally Fresno. This piece of information was valuable. What made the busses better here than in Fresno? She claimed that the riders were nicer, or at least quieter, the busses were in better shape, and they ran more according to schedule. The difference in these experiences is likely due to the economic zones in which the busses operate, and Fresno's status as a more marginalized minority community. A clear example of inequity in the actual bus system itself.
Of the short interviews that I did with people who don't ride the metro system, none were very surprising. I conducted a total of two, both with people I knew already. When I asked them why they didn't ride the metro the initial answer given was that they had cars. I pressed further, asking why they choose to have a car rather than use public transportation. Myasah (I let him chose his pseudonym) explained that the busses took too long to get anywhere, and were dirty. Myasah explained to me, "The busses are run down, you know? They're slow and they smell bad." My second interviewee expressed similar Opinions. Both of my non bus riders were white, something I hadn't co nsidered originally. While this does give some bias against a thorough subject pool, which is to my regret, it does create an interesting juxtaposition against the predominately Hispanic riders which I was able to speak to.
Finally, I conducted research into metro bus statistics as well as demographics for Los Angeles county. As I mentioned before, if we look at an ethnic component to inequality it might again help our understandings. I felt that if I found that there was a difference in the normative income levels of ethnic individuals in Los Angeles, and was then able to correlate that to metro ridership, I would be able to demonstrate the status of metro riders as being marginal. This would provide a strong argument for the transit system itself being a function of inequality.
Conducting actual research on metro demographics proved to be problematic. There was no coherent data set on the metro riders by racial percentage, leaving my documentation to be all that I had to go on. As far as Los Angeles demographics, a census report indicates that 50% of the population is white, and 46% Hispanic, while only 8% is African American. I am assuming that the census identified mixed individuals in both categories which is responsible in the demographics exceeding 100%. According to my statistics, roughly 55% of the riders I encountered were Hispanic, 25% were African American, 10-15% were White, and the remaining percent was composed of 'other.' However small my information on statistics was, it is significant that while ethnic individuals are a minority population, they make the majority of metro riders. Another useful statistic that I was able to find was a list of income on average in different cities in Los Angeles. Cities with lower income statistics naturally had higher numbers of bus lines in them (Los Angeles Almanac).
Analysis
It is apparent that if the metro system's patronage is unequa lly skewed to both minority populations and toward regions with less income, there is some degree of inequality being expressed. Throughout the interviews and surveys conducted for this project, it was painstakingly apparent that individuals who were on the bus would rather be driving, and that individuals that were driving did not want to be on the bus. What prevented riders from being able to own vehicles is by definition their unequal access to transportation resources. Still there were different kinds of inequality to speak of.
As mentioned before, youth itself is a status of inequality in urban, and likely even rural environments. It is commonly known that individuals under 18 years of age lack even the rights that adults over that age are entitled to. It not only these rights that youth lacks access to, however, individuals of this age are commonly dependent on their parents for support, and as such lack the freedom to do as they please. They are also subject to mandated enrollment in primary education up to the age of 16. The high percentage of youth on the metro rail is a result of their inability to procure transportation for themselves, as well as their legal inability to drive under the age of 16.
For metropolitan transit systems to not be indicators of inequality, it is necessary that riders are participating in public transit because they prefer it, rather than having no alternative. Further, the state of disrepair in the transit system should be an indicator that it is not a priority in the current administration. One would wager that there would be a difference in the transit system if it were meant for an entire populace, rather than to provide the city with a mobile labor force.
Conclusion
There is little available research into racial and income based demographics for metro ridership. Information that could be gathered her might be able to provide us with interesting insight on how it is that public transportation evolves in a urban environment. This area of study would make an invaluable compliment to discussions on inter-regional demographics designed to trace the movement of minority labor forces through a city. In a different capacity, information of this sort could also prove useful in attempts to aid the green movement and make public transportation the preferred method of intercity movement for all individuals. The uses and potentials for research of this nature when little is available are staggering.
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