Ready to start riding the bus?
We live in a city with an award-winning transit agency that runs the second-oldest municipal bus line in California still operating today. Our forward-looking transportation department has ambitious plans for a network of bus lanes and a fleet of electric-only buses by 2028.
But many residents have never set foot on one of our green Culver City buses. Let’s change that.
Your Best Bet: Travel Along Washington or Sepulveda
Let’s be honest, not everyone lives in a neighborhood where the bus is convenient. But if you’re close to Washington Blvd or Sepulveda, then frequent bus service is just a few steps away.
Line 1 - Washington Blvd: You work at Sony and you’re meeting friends for happy hour at FIN? Trying to get from the DMV to a movie at the Culver Theater? Headed out to Venice Beach? Line 1 goes exactly where you need it to.
Line 6 - Sepulveda Blvd: You live near Sepulveda/Sawtelle and need to see your doctor at UCLA? Headed to LAX? Going shopping at Fox Hills Mall Westfield Culver City? Line 6 will get you there and back.
What do you need to ride the bus?
Just two bucks. Two $1 bills or a TAP card with a balance of at least $2 will get you to your destination and back. Seniors pay only $0.35 each way!
Get the app. Bookmark https://nextccbus.org on your phone, or download the NextCCBus app on iPhone or Google Play.
Plan your trip. Look at a map of Line 1 (along Washington) or Line 6 (along Sepulveda) to find the stops closest to your origin and destination.
Start your journey
Use https://nextccbus.org to determine whether it’s time to leave to go to your stop. The bus arrival estimates are accurate enough so that you can walk up to your bus stop with only a couple minutes of wait time before the bus shows up.
This video has a short tutorial on using https://nextccbus.org to get to your bus on time:
Pay, ride, leave
When you board the bus, pay your fare by tapping your TAP card or inserting a dollar bill into the farebox.
Take a seat and relax. Follow along on https://nextccbus.org to watch as the bus approaches your destination. You can also listen as the stops are announced on the intercom.
When your destination stop is next, press the yellow strip (see above photo) or the red “STOP” button to request a stop.
When the bus comes to a stop, exit through the back door if you are able to.
Take it easy
For your first try, go somewhere you’ve been before. And do something where being late won’t be a problem. It's not rocket science, but your first bus ride can be intimidating and you'll make some rookie mistakes.
It's okay! Bus drivers have seen it all, and they're here to help.
But how can we make it better?
We love the Culver City bus system, but of course it can be improved.
Connect Fox Hills. Fox Hills is the densest area of the city and one of the most diverse, and it’s only going to grow more dense with housing development in the next decade. Although a huge chunk of the city lives there, it’s not well connected to the rest of the city via transit.
Line 3 is the best we’ve got to get from Fox Hills into other parts of Culver City, but it’s not frequent enough and it only covers one corridor. Circulators could help fill the gap:
A short-run Fox Hills circulator that connects residential areas in Fox Hills to the transit center at Westfield Culver City would provide quick and convenient access to the businesses in and around the mall, as well as essential connections to Line 6 and LA Metro bus lines that serve South LA.
An express Fox Hills circulator that hits the residential areas in Fox Hills and then goes to the downtown Culver City Metro station would solve the first-mile/last-mile problem for Fox Hills residents that need to commute to Santa Monica, downtown LA, or anywhere else connected via the LA Metro transit system.
Higher frequency. You can basically go to any stop on Washington or Sepulveda, without looking at the schedule, and expect a bus within 10-20 minutes. That’s fantastic, but bus lines with comparable ridership in the LA Metro and Santa Monica Big Blue Bus systems come every 5-10 minutes.
Increasing bus frequency even a little makes a huge different for convenience and reliability. You never need to think about when the bus is going to come because it’s always coming soon. And running more buses will help with crowding on the buses — especially on Line 6, where you often see overpacked, standing-room-only buses during rush hour.
Cover more corridors. This guide focuses on Lines 1 and 6 because they are the only relatively high frequency bus lines in the system. Other lines are simply not easy to ride for beginners because (a) you really need to know the schedule, and (b) if a bus doesn’t stick to the schedule it can easily make you late because another bus may not come for 40 minutes or more.
This might be totally appropriate for certain routes that might never have high ridership, but other corridors like Overland and Jefferson are ripe for high frequency service.
Did you take the bus for the first time? Let us know! Send us your stories at ourculver@gmail.com.