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Opinion: Online Learning Is Better for Commuters

With COVID-19 cases surging in the US, many institutions have switched to online learning.

By Oliver Cabrera

With COVID-19 cases surging in the US, many institutions have switched to online learning.

Los Angeles City College is one of many learning institutions that decided that all classes for the remainder of the Spring and Fall semesters would be taught online.

When I found out that classes would be taught entirely online, I was excited. I was excited that for the remainder of my semester, I would be learning at home.

My excitement for staying at home didn’t come from my disdain for school. It came from my disdain for the Los Angeles Metro.

Like many students at LACC, I commute to school. I have a love-hate relationship with public transport, and I’m pretty sure it formed from my daily commutes to the school.

On one hand, the Metro offers a cheap way to get to anywhere in Los Angeles and its surrounding cities. If you want to go somewhere, the trains and buses have you covered.

On the other hand, the buses and trains are always very crowded, and this lack of room can make a daily commute exhausting.

My route to go to school consists of taking one bus and two trains. The commute starts in the morning, specifically at 5, as I take mostly morning classes and waking up at this time will ensure I get to class on time.

My commute is usually an hour.

The bus I take is the 102. This bus is infuriating for one particular reason.

The 102 arrives at odd times.

While most buses arrive around ten or fifteen minutes from each other, you’ll have to wait half an hour or even an hour for the next 102. If you miss the first bus, tough luck.

I have to arrive at the stop by 6:40, as any later will result in me being tardy.

After I get off the bus, I take the Expo Line. After I get off the Expo Line, I take the Red Line.

The Expo Line isn’t that bad. It’s only a fifteen-minute ride to my stop, and there aren’t many people aboard during the morning.

From where I take the Red Line, it’s only about a ten-minute ride to get to LACC.

Don’t let that fool you, though. The Red Line is the stuff of nightmares.

At any hour, you can expect to see an entire train cart packed to the brim of commuters. To say it is always crowded is like saying the sky is blue, everyone knows this.

At every stop, a crowd of people are there waiting to get on board, and it looks like something out of a horror movie. People come at droves, and you can expect to be breathing down someone’ neck, or vice-versa.

The Red Line’s popularity comes from the fact that it takes you through areas such Hollywood and Universal City. These areas are hot tourist attractions, and so people flood these trains.

Rush Hour is every hour on board the Red Line.

After surviving what feels like an eternity, you’ve arrived at Los Angeles City College.

After class, I repeat this process all over again.

The alternatives are not much better.

The single most important place in my commute is the Red Line Station. In my case, the Red Line is the only form of transit that will get me to LACC.

There are many alternatives I can take to get to the Red Line, but each is even worse than the last.

An alternative to the 102 is the 53. The 53 is arguably the most crowded bus in Los Angeles.

It stops at every street or so, and it attracts a lot of people because its route goes through DTLA.

Every stop brings in more and more people, and drivers turning people away at the door is not uncommon.

If you manage to get a seat, you’ve hit the jackpot. Good luck getting out, though.

The second alternative consists of taking the Blue Line to the Red Line Station.

You know how I said the Red Line is the stuff of nightmares? I lied.

The Blue Line is even more crowded than the Red Line, and stepping foot inside the train is at times, impossible.

People manage to squeeze into every nook and cranny of the train, and I have to walk all along the train in order to find a train cart that doesn’t contain a person blocking the doorway.

If I don’t, I’m late.

With online learning, I bypass all of this. I can make my own schedule and wake up whenever I want to.

I don’t need to wake up early in order to catch a bus anymore, and I don’t have to worry if I’ll be able to get a spot on the train.

Gone are the worries of public transport, and having my classes readily accessible has allowed me to be in control.

By opening my laptop, I’ve arrived at my school in a matter of seconds. What was once a hassle is now hassle free.