Commuting

Even since the first ribbon of concrete was laid from downtown to Pasadena in the late 1930s, the mantra of Los Angeles car culture has been that freeways should be free. L.A. County's first officially recognized freeway, hugging the contours of the Arroyo Seco, gave way to a network of connecting highways that came to define the growing metropolis as a proudly toll-free region of the country. But Saturday marks a break with that legacy. For the first time, L.A. County officials will begin charging motorists to use carpool lanes on an 11-mile stretch of the 110 Freeway from downtown to the South Bay. The 110 express lanes mark the area's first effort at "congestion pricing," in which officials allow solo drivers to use less-crowded carpool lanes to cut their commutes by two to three minutes a mile on average - if they are willing to pay as much as $15.40 per trip.

NEW YORK -- Commuters were forced to improvise Monday to get to jobs, medical appointments and school on the first real workday following super storm Sandy's crippling effects on the region. Some New Yorkers rolled out of bed earlier - and others much later - to secure a spot on a train that took longer than usual. Others squeezed into packed buses they'd never taken before. A few traveled miles in plummeting temperatures to make a transit connection - all in an attempt to return to something of a normal life.

KAPOLEI, Hawaii - For all those visitors to Waikiki Beach who see Honolulu as a South Sea paradise, Maeda Timson would like to invite them to climb into her minivan and drive for a moment in her world. She leaves her home in this fast-growing suburb every morning at 6:20 for what has become an hour and a half commute to her job as vice president at Bank of Hawaii in downtown Honolulu. Sometimes it takes two hours to go the 23 miles. "Where's the quality of life?" Timson said.

By the time Barry Balmat showed up at the Santa Monica Bike Center, he had already compiled a laundry list of reasons why biking to work might not work. The Santa Monica resident lived just two miles from his office, but the thought of pedaling just feet from passing cars without a shell of protection was "a little anxiety inducing," he said. Then there was the question of how exactly to make left turn. And he wasn't sure whether he'd need to shower. But the bike center's offer of a free, well-equipped bike for two weeks was simply too good to pass up. And like so many of the program's guinea pigs, Balmat said his worries faded after only a few days on the streets.

Norphesa Jones rises before dawn twice a week to take a 6 a.m. physical education class at Southwest College, just blocks from her home in South Los Angeles. She then takes a bus to the Green Line, catches the train and another bus to Los Angeles Trade Tech downtown for an 8:30 a.m. math class. Jones then backtracks to Southwest for a personal development class that begins at 11:10 a.m. Shuttling 20 miles between campuses isn't by choice: The math class she needed wasn't offered at Southwest.

Carmageddon Redux came to an end according to plan before Monday's commute got underway. But unlike last year's freeway closure, which wrapped up an unexpected 17 hours ahead of schedule, this time construction crews used most of their allotted time to make as many improvements to the 405 Freeway as possible, officials said. While motorists opted for alternate routes, alternate modes of transportation or just stayed home, transportation officials deployed extra crews along the Sepulveda Pass to fill potholes, trim trees and pave three Southbound lanes - weeks of work squeezed into a two-day time frame.

A veteran New York area transit leader Friday was named chief executive of the Metrolink commuter rail service at a challenging time in its efforts to improve safety and increase ridership. Michael P. DePallo, 58, current director and general manager of a rail subsidiary of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, replaces John Fenton, who unexpectedly left the agency in May to head a Florida-based rail company. The rail service overseen by DePallo carries more than 250,000 passengers a day between Manhattan and New Jersey, far more than Metrolink's daily ridership.

In its 25 missions spanning nearly two decades, the space shuttle Endeavour circled the Earth more than 4,600 times, spending a total of 299 days in space. It carried the crews that assembled the first U.S. component of the International Space Station, and would go on to dock at the station a dozen times. By the time Endeavour completed its last mission a year ago, the shuttle had logged nearly 123 million miles beyond Earth. But the shuttle's final journey - a measly 12 miles - might just be its most memorable.

We went for it anyway ... even though we were geographically undesirable. Love knows no bounds, right? So we flew in the face of reason and committed to a commuter relationship. If it weren't for the vexing distance between us, we'd be the inspiration for a Lifetime movie. His marriage officially dissolved the same week my husband died 51/2 years ago. Middle-aged, hearts trampled, we rediscovered joy and magic and all those things supposedly reserved for the young. We'd been friends for 30 years.

Re "O.C. tollways to stop taking cash," July 1 So let me make sure I understand. If you have a product for which you are losing customers, and you want to increase revenue, you should raise prices and make it less convenient to use? That appears to be the strategy of the Transportation Corridor Agencies as it raises prices 5% to 10% and eliminates the use of cash on the tollways, requiring all users to have a FasTrak or other account. Who is the business strategy genius they're getting their advice from?