Transcript of Podcast #9A: Life Without a Car Part #1
In Attendance: Aimee Jiang (she/her) & Nezahat Gulucuk Barlas (she/her)
Aimee: Hello, everyone welcome to another episode of the GIC podcast. Today we are going to do part 1 of a 2 part series on life without a car. And so we will talk about today, mostly we’re going to talk about buses and and train tickets and vehicle sharing apps. And so we hope this information is helpful to you. My name is Aimee Jiang. I am the International Student Support Officer for Graduate Division here at UCI, and I am joined by Nezahat, and we are excited to share this information with you, so I’m going to pass it over to her to introduce herself.
Nezahat: Thank you, Aimee. I’m Nezahat Gulucuk Barlas. I’m a Ph.D. student in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UCi. Today, I’m happy to be here. Thank you.
Aimee: Yeah. We’re excited to have you. This is your first year as a GIC mentor and we’re very excited to have you join us this year. So thank you for coming to this podcast today and talking about life without a car. I know you and I talked before we started recording, I recently sold my car and my husband and I are down to one car. So a lot of these things are things that I’m doing as well. So we will have a good conversation about what it’s like to be here in Irvine without a car. Our first question that we’ll jump into is we’re talking about bus tickets and train tickets. So we don’t want to just be an Irvine. Sometimes. we have some other podcasts about places we may want to explore. So how can you get the tickets for buses or train tickets to go to nearby places?
Nezahat: Yeah, it’s a good question. Let me start with bus tickets. Irvine is in Orange County, so generally I prefer to travel in Orange County to do this Orange County, OC, bus app is perfect for buying tickets using smartphone. But there are other options. The other option is to use the website of Orange County Transportation Authority. It’s short form is OCTA. So you can use OCTA website under OC Bus tab. And the other option is using cash on the bus. This is also good, because when my phone is dead I just give money and take my ticket. And I have recently learned, there is another way. if you want to buy a pass, you can pick it up in Albertson grocery store on Campus Plaza. Campus Plaza means shopping center. It includes like hair dresser, restaurants, post office, and grocery store.
Aimee: Yeah, I definitely and I will link the website to OCTA in our transcript. So if you want to just jump to that transcript, you can do so. I’ve definitely heard of a lot of people, especially when they first arrive using cash. If you haven’t set up your smartphone, maybe if you don’t have a smartphone and being able to use cash. So if you’re a bus, bus rider, you should definitely always have a couple of dollars on you just in case you end up taking the bus. And like you said, maybe your phones dead, or maybe you haven’t set it up yet, or for some reason you don’t have service to be able to open up what you need to. I always recommend caring a couple of dollars around that just for that. So bus tickets, what about train tickets?
Nezahat: Yeah. let me give you a background knowledge first. To the best of my knowledge, there are 2 railway systems here. The first one is Amtrak, and it serves in most part of the United States. The second railway system is Metrolink, and it’s the regional railway system in California. Amtrak stops in fever stations. So using Amtrak is little faster than Metrolink and it offers late night trains like after 7 pm. However, Amtrak tickets are more expensive. Lastly, from my experience. Delay in departure time is more likely in Amtrak.
Aimee: I’ve had many issues with Amtrak delays. But it’s really convenient if you’re wanting to go to, maybe San Diego or go to Union Station in L.A. Hopefully, it’ll finish up soon, but there’s going to be a LAX tram from the airport to Union Station, and then you’ll be able to take Union Station to Irvine and be much closer to campus if you’re going in and out of LAX. It’s not finished building yet, but they are in the process of building that one, as you said, Amtrak, and then we have the more regional one as well.
Nezahat: Exactly. To take train tickets for Metrolink you can use Metrolink app for Amtrak train, because you can use the Amtrak app in addition to using app you can prefer to use ticket, vending machines in train stations.
Aimee: Yeah, I’ve purchased, not on the Metro. I’ve purchased the Amtrak ones like in the station and been able to to do that. I’ve also seen some people if they’re traveling for conferences. If the plane tickets are too expensive, that it might take you a while depending on how far away it is. But if you’re going up to say, like Sacramento or San Francisco, you can usually take the Amtrak up to those locations. And you can search Amtrak, I haven’t been on Metro’s website. But for Amtrak, their website, you can search the destinations and see the different kinds of trains and the different times and pricing. And so you can get a little more of an idea. If you’re on a computer. And you’re like searching for like a big trip, you can get a better idea that way from Amtrak. I’ve definitely taken that one multiple locations throughout the U.S, too, when I’ve been at a conference. If I wanted to go somewhere, especially on the East Coast. There’s some more locations out there for Amtrak, but so bus stations, train stations. we’ve got a couple of them in Irvine and you can, you can kind of see how far they are away from campus. I think the Amtrak, like you said has less stops. So it goes some less of the stations. But when we’re thinking about destinations and schedules what are the bus or train destinations and schedules and kind of how would you have people figuring that out?
Nezahat: Yeah, that’s a good question Aimee thanks.To learn destinations and schedules I always use Google maps. However, there is a warning Google Maps might be misleading. For example, one time I went to Irvine train station on Saturday to take the first train. Then I learned train schedule is different on weekend and holiday, so it might be good idea to check OC bus web page or train page in advance. For OC buses. you can create a bus book using OC bus web page. In this way you can see all destinations, schedules in weekdays, weekends and holidays. For rail, both railway systems have an interactive map as you mentioned using their web page, it’s possible to see all train stations and routes. Additionally, buying ticket process is user friendly. For example, when buying tickets from using app or vending machine. First you need to choose origin station and destination station, then the app show all available trains with departure time. So you can select which time works for you.
Aimee: Yeah, I always recommend that double check. I’ve had issues with Google maps as well with some of the bus stops, especially on a holiday. Because that’s usually when I’m trying to like, go out and do something is during a holiday or a weekend and they can definitely vary. I think we saw a lot more closures during Covid too and so some of the stations have changed since then. I will say with Google Maps they don’t always show you all of the routes, and sometimes they don’t even show you the most convenient route. I don’t know if it’s maybe sometimes they’re trying to help alleviate traffic from certain stations. But the websites and the app is definitely more accurate when you’re trying to check those things. Any other tips for using Google Maps.
Nezahat: I agree, yeah, I have a couple tips. The first one is after loading your route in Google Maps. You don’t have to keep the data open. I think this is useful especially you’re going in a long distance. So this is my first tip. The second one is, there is a little compass on the right side of the screen. I like to check, where is the north using this compass. It might sound silly but this is a good idea, if you want to take a bus and there are multiple bus stations around 4 intersected ways. So yeah, these are my tips.
Aimee: Yeah, I love being able to save my Google Maps offline. It helps with your battery power, too, because you’re not constantly refreshing the data and when you’re on a train or a bus, you don’t really need the like local traffic stuff to update. So being able to save those offline is really helpful. Especially like you said you don’t, you want to kind of keep track of where you’re going, and you don’t want your phone to be dead when you get to your location. So especially if it’s hot. I feel like my phone dies so much faster. And I always wanna save things offline and try and reserve some of that battery power. So we talked about buses and trains, and those are two pretty common ways that I’ve heard students get around, especially when it comes to just being able to explore the local area. And you don’t always want to have a car. Cars can be really expensive. We’ll talk in a upcoming podcast about buying, used cars, leasing cars, buying a car that’s new. Some of the things that goes along with that. We’ve already talked about going to the DMV and getting your driver’s license. Which we would recommend, even if you’re not planning on driving, having at least some other form of ID, but in terms of buses and trains,I do think that’s a pretty common one, but some students do choose to rent cars, or use other kinds of vehicle apps, or Uber or Lyft. Do you have any information about vehicle sharing apps?
Nezahat: I have a couple sentence for vehicle sharing. Using, and the vehicle sharing Uber or Lyft, doesn’t matter. They are easy and handy. Personally, I like the combination of vehicle sharing and public transportation, such as bus and train. I think this hybrid mode is faster and cheaper, because using only public transportation takes a long time but using only vehicle sharing system is expensive. Additionally, my transportation style is not tiring. So I have enough energy to explore new places all the time.
Aimee: Yeah, I I think for us, my husband and I, when we travel sometimes the airport is a really expensive place to get like a Lyft or an Uber. So if we can get ourselves like walking or taking a bus outside of that, like more expensive neighborhood, or at least closer to our destination. We will always choose to do that. Save 10-15 bucks just to take a a bus a mile away from the airport. So I highly recommend you check between Uber and Lyft the prices can change, so we always have both of those apps downloaded. But, like you said, I think it’s always a good combination to be able to be like, Okay, I’m going to walk to this bus stop. I’m gonna take this bus stop a mile and then I’m gonna get out of this like busy area and try and get a cheaper Uber to where I’m trying to go or take a Lyft to one destination or to one of the train stations, and then take the train station the rest of the way. I think, being able to map out your days it becomes much easier to be able to be like, okay, I know, if I can get here, it’s going to be around this much. It helps you definitely budget on those adventures that you want to take. And I’ve mentioned this in multiple podcasts before, we want you to take adventures while you’re in grad school and explore your local area because I’m sure as you’ve noticed, grad school can be hard and so being able to get out and explore is, it’s refreshing to your soul to be able to maybe go to the beach or go down to LA or San Diego and just see something new. Get your mind off school a little bit, and then you can feel refreshed to get back. We didn’t have this question planned, but I am going to ask you what is maybe your top one or two favorite places that you have taken the bus or a train to explore in the local area.
Nezahat: I like train journey from here to LA and my one of my favorite spots is Grammy Museum. I love music, and it’s it, it was an amazing experience for me to be in Grammy Museum. I do recommend here.
Aimee: Yeah, that’s not a super well known one. I’m glad you’ve been able to go. I’ve heard a lot of really good things about it. I love going down to LA, and I’ve heard that train ride is super easy and simple to figure out. Orange County does have some stuff during the summer that’s free. But LA tends to have stuff all year long. So I’ve gone to just recently a jazz concert at the LACMA Museum. It was a free outdoor concert. People just had blankets and snacks and food, and it was like picnicking with some live jazz music. Really amazing experience. So I highly recommend that people aren’t afraid to take the bus and the train and use the public transportation system. We’re not well known for it. It’s not the easiest system, as maybe in some other countries our subway system is non-existent where we live. And Irvine there is one in LA, but it’s also not known to be super convenient. But we do have public transportation, and if you can figure out how to use it and maneuver through some of the differences between what it’s like and maybe what public transportation is like where you’re from. It’s definitely a great experience to be able to get out and explore. Yeah. Well, thank you so much for joining us today. We will have part 2 coming up soon, and we look forward to having you join us for that and other future conversations, thank you Nezahat for joining us today.
Nezahat: Thank you, Aimee, for having me today.