No car needed to get to or out of LAX

40 Inspiring Travel Quotes (Castles & Carpools)

It used to be that as a world traveler, no matter how cheap the flight, how inexpensive the lodging, how tasty and trivial the fee for nutritious far was, they'd get you at the airport. The redeye into Los Angeles was a giveaway, but the taxi fare from LAX to the part of town where anyone other than travelers were was more expensive. The same for New York, Boston, and the major hubs. Even toting a copy of the trusty Lonely Planet, it was hard to get a straight answer on how to get out from under the planes for cheap. It could be found. It did exist. But nobody knew about it, and no one was telling anyone, and no one knew where to ask or get answers. Pressing, there was always a way, even from LAX. But the limousine bus, hotels, and taxi companies all conspired to keep it secret. It used to be that to get out of LAX, one had to find a free bus out of the octopus of busy streets and to a station. From there, one could cheaply (for pennies) get to downtown and from there anywhere else. It was never necessary to get a ride to the airport to fly out or to get picked up when coming in. It was a nice luxury, however imposing it was on the relationship (revealing who was a dependable friend or family member). But now it's easy. Starting today it is clear to anyone, and Uber and Lyft must be nonplussed. How did the Yellow Cab Company keep the scheme going for so long? Now there's a new station and a clear and easy way to get out of and back to LAX, Los Angeles International. Let this be a message to all shoestring travelers with big backpacks on their way to Asia or Europe: there is always a way out of the airport and into town without getting rolled by a taxi or tuktuk driver/company. See Lonely Planet | Travel Guides & Travel Information or wait at the airport until morning and ask the concierge. It's as if someone has told them not to tell anyone, but they will if pressed. There's always a way out, even if it means walking out of the airport to another battalion on independent taxis who do not want to pay and pass on airport fees.

Travel, who needs it?

“Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.”

—Maya Angelou

“Experience, travel – these are as education in themselves.

—Euripides

“We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.”

—Jawaharlal Nehru

“It is probably a pity that every citizen of each state cannot visit all the others, to see the differences, to learn what we have in common, and come back with a richer, fuller understanding of America – in all its beauty, in all its dignity, in all its strength, in support of moral principles.”

—Dwight D. Eisenhower

“A great way to learn about your country is to leave it.”

—Henry Rollins

“What you’ve done becomes the judge of what you’re going to do – especially in other people’s minds. When you’re traveling, you are what you are right there and then. People don’t have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road.”

—William Least Heat Moon

“We travel not to escape life but for life not to escape us.”

—Anonymous

“I am not the same, having seen the moon shine on the other side of the world.”

—Mary Anne Radmacher

• KTLA.com; Eds., Wisdom Quarterly, Castles & Carpools; Lonely Planet