Blogging Social Difference- Week 2: The Big Blue Bus (Updated 12/9/12)

Taking the Big Blue Bus is an adventure, to say the least. More than anything, a trip on this particularly clean and efficient mode of public transportation serves more as an insight into the diverse personalities and dynamics of the city, as thousands use the system to navigate the crowded and varied landscape of the city. Being originally from a particularly affluent residential area, I did not have much opportunity, nor need, to use public transportation prior to college. It wasn't even so much of a not wanting to, or preferring not to, as not seeing reason to in a city that did not have a well developed public transportation system. Everyone back home just used cars, and didn't think otherwise. Here in Los Angeles, however, the public transportation system is part of how so many people can survive the chaos of their daily needs. Before travel on the Big Blue Bus actually takes place, one must navigate the incredible complexity of determining available and working bus stops. Depending on the day and time, a bus makes different stops and reaches different places, making finding the correct bus at the correct place more challenging than seemingly necessary. I started in Ackerman Turnaround, having seem a multitude of Big Blue Buses come through there in the past, and thus believing this to be the correct place to start. Let me tell you, it only takes about half hour before you realize that you are in the wrong place, and really don't know where to go next. Thankfully, the Big Blue Bus company posts corresponding times and stops for their buses, yet this still necessitates a knowledge of the surrounding area. This only proves that public transportation is generally made more for local people with previous knowledge of the area and system, not necessarily for travelers. That the public transportation system is predisposed towards those who live in the area and have knowledge of the area serves as a somewhat subconscious divider as it separates the knowledgeable from the unknowing, the resident from the traveler, and those with access to resources from those that do not. To get on the bus requires a fee, which makes sense, certainly, in context of the need of the public system to be able to afford this public service. Travel itself is not necessarily smooth, but is certainly efficient. The stops are pre-determined and frequent, so travel is made in conscious observation of your relation to your surroundings as you try to avoid missing the correct stop and losing valuable time.

It is interesting to note that the Big Blue Bus, which covers a smaller area, seems to focus more on short-distance transit, meaning that people use the bus to go relatively close in their next destination. This is unique when compared to the Metro lines and other systems, which focus on long distance travel,and thus have different clientele, as the Big Blue Bus necessarily caters more to locals with limited traveling opportunties. At twelve thirty on a Tuesday, the demographics of the bus mostly consisted of younger students and elderly travelers. This makes sense in context, as most people in between those age groups would be at work during that time of day. The people themselves that use public transit are incredibly interesting and diverse characters. I personally enjoy trying to understand the social, economic, and political histories of those around me through my interpretations of how they dress, act, etc. The people on this trip varied incredibly from clean cut students to older asian grandmothers, to teenage tattooed skateboarders. For no reason whatsoever would these people come together unless through the need to travel through public transportation to meet their social and economic responsibilties. While the travelers on the bus did not interact or talk to one another, they still followed the social etiquette and structure that is common to all of us, and which brings us closer together in our common residences.

In terms of the modern day city, The Big Blue Bus is a manifestation, if you will, of the social differences that arise in society from the agglomeration of people in cities. If we follow Durkheim's belief that the division of labor creates society by agglomerating people into one area to share resources and center around one common religious/political center, then Los Angeles serves as a prime example of such agglomeration. It is home to thousands of occupations, and thus brings together multitudes of different types of people. In this way, society is diversified. As society becomes more dense and populated over a large area, there comes a need for transportation services to allow people to maintain their occupations and lifestyles. Simultaneously, we see that society stratifies itself, lending to the creation of classes and different social levels. Those in the higher levels have access to resources and thus are able to meet the daily (transportation) needs of being in this society without problem; those in the lower socioeconomic levels do not have such resources, and thus the need for public transportation, such as the Big Blue Bus, comes about. Without these tools, which are essentially manifestations of the division of labor and its consequences, society would not be able to live in cooperative unity, as competition for resources (such as dwellings nearer to work, commerce, etc) would cause discontent and conflict between groups. Los Angeles would then, hypothetically, have broken into pieces as society broke into conflicting pieces until equilibrium was reached once again. It is important to note,however, that the Big Blue Bus is just one such manifestation of this social division. Every place within Los Angeles, as well, is dictated by these social divisions, and society as we know it hangs in a balance of the manifestations of these divisions and the reactions of everyday people as they interact with these manifestations.