It's not quite 9 a.m., and the bus riders on Route 57 are packed like sardines in a can. Women with small children are heading to the clinic, students are en route to school, and domestic workers are taking the long ride to the mansions near the beach.
Angel Carrillo, wearing a black and red uniform, is headed to McDonald's in Pomona. This is his second bus of the day. From Long Beach, the 30-year-old took a bus to Santa Ana, where he caught the 57. At the end of the route in Brea, he'll take another bus to Pomona, then one more to work. He'll spend four hours on buses today.
"You get used to it," he said.
For Southern Californians who have cars and money for gas, the buses and their crisscrossing routes may be largely a mystery. But for many, the bus routes are like veins, connections that keep the world moving. And even before skyrocketing gas prices pushed more people toward public transportation, Route 57 was one of the busiest lines in Orange County. On a typical weekday, more than 16,000 people ride the line. In May, more than 18,000 used it every day, according to the Orange County Transportation Authority.
The 57 is the workhorse of bus routes in the county, rumbling through some of the poorest and richest, most diverse and homogeneous neighborhoods in the region. Without it, many people wouldn't get to work or school or even the market. During the county's bus strike in 2005, nowhere was the misery of the shutdown felt more painfully than along the well-traveled 57. After midnight, when most of the county's buses are parked, the 57 keeps running, offering overnight service for late-night workers who might otherwise have to walk or bicycle in the dark.
From the north, the route starts at Brea Mall, then cuts through parts of Fullerton, Anaheim, Santa Ana and Costa Mesa, its passenger load building and shrinking depending on the neighborhood. On its last leg, to Fashion Island in Newport Beach, the ridership thins to mostly maids and other domestic workers.
As it rolls through north county, the view is all strip malls and fast-food joints, warehouses and office buildings. A few miles down the line, the malls give way to row after row of wood frames and scaffolding for condominiums and apartments under construction. In Santa Ana, it's block after block of fenced-up lots where homes once stood. The city bought and demolished them last year, hoping to add two lanes to Bristol Street.
