big scholar

Anyone here live car free in Santa Monica? I'm real close to taking a job there, and I wanted to see what other folks' experiences are like.

I currently live in SF, and it's effortless; my wife and I can get anywhere we need to via public transit, bikes, or the odd car-share reservation. I've visited Santa Monica before, and I get the feeling it's doable. My job would be the city, and the school that my wife would attend is about two miles from there. I figure that if we get a place within five miles of either, we'd be good.

What I'm mostly worried about is what I'd call "mid-range mobility." Since we live in SF, we can hop a train/bus/ferry to a neighboring city, and do what we need to do. How feasible is that with LA's transit system? I've been reading about the city's rapid bus system; how hard is it to connect to that from the service on the westside?

What about cycling from the westside to, say downtown LA, or Silverlake? Are there decent routes that aren't too congested?

Finally, what's the car-sharing scene like there? I know there are Flexcars near UCLA. Any other providers in the area?

Thanks for the input, everyone. We're both hyped and nervous about the prospects of this move!

Artkansas 

Well, I lived there a little a couple of decades ago. Bicycle wise, Santa Monica was pretty good. Much of L.A. is fairly flat so you can pedal pretty far. At one point I was living in Inglewood, working in Culver City and going to school at Santa Monica College. Most of the major roads in and out of Santa Monica are okay.

The Santa Monica Bus system was pretty good and had an express bus to downtown L.A. and the airport. RTD the LA Bus system had buses that went all the way into downtown, but they took forever.

Iheartbicycles

Well don't worry you can move to Santa Monica worry free about being car free. Santa Monica next to Downtown/central Hollywood is probably the best place in Los Angeles county to live car free. You can check out the public transportation system here https://www.metro.net/index.asp. You can go pretty much anywhere in L.A. county with a bicycle+public transportation. The Metro system here is pretty comprehensive and covers all major city's in L.A. Its just a matter of time. One thing you are going to love bicycling in Santa Monica is the weather. It's right next to the beach so it's pretty much always beautiful weather during the day. It caan get chilly at night but I'm sure you're used to that living in SF.

alicestrong

If you work in Santa Monica, it is very doable part of LA to live without a car, in my opinion.

I prefer the Big Blue Bus over Metro and the ocean is right there, too.

You feel more "apart from" than Silverlake/Hollywood but that can be good.

All SM needs is a light rail connect.

Car sharing is not really happening.

There are ways to ride from SM to Downtown, how far are you used to riding?

You will like the flatness, the traffic not so much.

FollowYourHeart

Riding in Santa Monica is lots of fun!!! You will always be flying past tons of cars stuck in traffic on Wilshire blvd during rush hour.

habcup

What's the best way to get through (or around) the heart of LA by bicycle? I would like to be able to ride from Santa Monica to visit my friends in Monterey Park and Covina.

I moved to Santa Monica less that 2 months ago. I use my car about once per week for errands outside of the city and occasionally use the big blue bus. Otherwise, getting around by bike seems fine. I haven't had any bad experiences with drivers. There's a bike map on the City of Santa Monica website (link below).

https://www01.smgov.net/isd/gis/map%5...og/bikemap.pdf

big scholar

Thanks for the replies everyone, and sorry for not posting sooner. We've decided on making the move. After doing research and talking to people like you guys, we're convinced it's possible to live in Santa Monica without having to rely on a car. Reading Streetsblog LA every day (https://la.streetsblog.org) instills hope that the transit situation will only improve in the years to come.

Any LA natives out there involved in transit advocacy? It seems like the future is bright for getting the Expo line out to the west side, not to mention the "Subway to the Sea."

Iheartbicycles

That would be nice but the reality of the situation is that there is no way that is going to happen until the (California's) economy is back up to normal.