Long Beach Transit

Long Beach Transit has made some more changes to bus routes. The Redondo Avenue bus no longer travels to Seal Beach. Neither does the Pacific Coast Highway bus. I wanted to take the Redondo bus to Seal Beach before the change became effective, but of course I did not. Homeless, I often took the PCH bus to Seal Beach; now Redondo Ave. bus is more convenient for me.

I sometimes walked to and from Seal Beach. Other times I switched buses to go to San Clemente. Or might get off anywhere in between, just to pass time, walk around looking in shop windows at Laguna Beach for instance. I keep meaning to revisit those places ~ get some more pictures to add to my homeless memories story.

No more free bus from Pine Avenue to Alamitos Ave. Pre-homeless I would never have considered taking that short ride. Homeless, I soon started joining my peers in either direction ~ even a few steps saved walking was a real blessing. Thus far the other Passport buses are still free ~ heading to either the Queen Mary or Shoreline Village.

A bus stop on Long Beach Blvd. is close to Albertsons. For some reason the 7th Street buses no longer stop there. Bus drivers wave to people perplexed as to why the bus is not stopping to pick them up. Have to walk (run if one expects to make it) two blocks north and around the corner to get on the bus at that stop instead. Both of those stops have lots of people boarding.

I have not been to that Albertsons (or across the street, 'round corner, up block to Wal-mart) in a while. I would check my bus schedule and often walked to the next stop rather than sit and wait. Yet I also was carrying some heavy stuff and would not think to add those extra blocks to my walk. Makes no sense to me. Just about all benches downtown have been removed (least homeless people sit or stretch out and sleep on them); no place for senior citizens to rest for a bit ~ now they will be forced to trudge even further carrying their bags of groceries with them.

I do not see skipping that stop shaving bus route time ~ it will take just as long to load people at the one stop ~ especially if there are one or two wheel chair bound passengers to load or unload. Oh well, as Sherry used to say:  that is life in a small town with no subways.