Los Angeles is the city of the car. This is mainly due to the fact that it is so huge! Public transport is available between some popular destinations (see below) but if you want flexiblity you will need a car.
Click on Car Guide for more information.
The Big Blue Bus has a fairly extensive service within Santa Monica and parts of LA. For example, you can take one bus from UCLA all the way to LAX. With a Bruin Card, the ride is 25 cents. Because the price is relatively cheap (normal fare is 75 cents) they don’t offer day-passes, but you can get a transfer to another Big Blue Bus or another city bus line. Note that if you need to get off of the bus for some reason and want to get back onto the same line, the transfer is not accepted. (It’s only good for transfer to a different line). Also note that during the summer quarter, the discount with Bruin Card is no longer effective. More maps and information on the website.
http://www.culvercity.org/depts_bus.asp
If you’re riding anything other than the Big Blue Bus (which offers a discount for UCLA employees), you can purchase monthly passes and tokens at the UCLA Central Ticket Office, which are slightly discounted from the daily fare.
http://ev1.evenue.net/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/evenue/ev66/se/Main.d2w/report?linkID=ucla
Most of the city buses have bike racks. Just hope that there aren’t already two bikers on the bus.
California has strict rules for cyclists. You should read the DMV cycling pages for more information:
If you do not hold a CA driving licence you should probably read the Driver’s Handbook.
Biking in LA is not as dangerous as people seem to think as long as you pick your route carefully. Also it beats the traffic and tends to be faster than the bus. If you want to find a safe bike route there is a great website which will give you the safest route from your door to wherever you want to go...check it out!
http://www.bikemetro.com/home/home.asp
In terms of buying a bike you can pick up a second hand one from a cool little shop on Pico and either Main or 3rd street in Santa Monica (can’t remember which!) for around $80, a new bike from Sportmart from around $200-$1000 or for better bikes check out Helen’s cycles in Westwood on Gayley for bikes from around $400 to whatever you want to spend!
If you live in Westwood it is possible to survive without transportation by using local stores and walking to campus. Please see the WestwoodGuide for more information about stores. If you have more information about walking then please edit the ByFoot page.
Taxis are not cheap on your own but they can be economical if you are a group. Be very careful about illegal taxis. Check this site for more information about taxis: http://www.taxicabsla.org