Peter Greenberg: Lax Bus Service

By: Peter Greenberg | Source: AARP.org | 2008-04-22

We have a nine-hour layover at LAX. We want to visit the art museum. Is there bus service from LAX? Whom do we contact to get a schedule?
 -Jack, Pueblo, Colo.

Los Angeles has many great art museums. However, not all are easily accessible by public transit from LAX. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is relatively difficult to reach from LAX, but the new Getty Center is within reach. If you take the FlyAway Westwood Bus from the Tom Bradley Terminal, get off at Kinross Avenue/Weyburn Place (on the northwest corner), and then get on the Metro Rapid 761 on the southeast corner of Westwood Plaza/Lindbrook Drive, you can take that to Sepulveda Boulevard/Getty Center Drive. In total, that will cost you about $5.25—alternatively, consider an unlimited-use day pass for $5—and the trip will take about an hour and 20 minutes.
  
Since this isn't the easiest bus journey in the world—and LA isn't known for its efficient mass transit—you should also be aware that cabs are readily available at LAX. The cost for this trip by taxi would be about $45.

Another easily accessible museum from LAX that you may want to check out is Bergamot Station. It is a large, art gallery complex with spaces leased by many different artists. You can get there by the City of Santa Monica's Big Blue Bus. Take the Big Blue Bus Line #3 to Santa Monica High School, and from there, take the Big Blue Bus #7 to Cloverfield. At that point, The Bergamot Station will be just steps away on Michigan Avenue.

Schedules are available online at http://www.bigbluebus.com/home/index.asp
and at http://www.metro.net/default.asp.