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Your Green Commute Guide to LA’s Best Summer Events

Big Blue Bus at the Beach
  1. It’s no sweat using alternative transportation to discover everything LA has to offer. Hot or not, you shouldn’t take a breezy attitude when it comes to reducing your carbon footprint. Explore the city without hurting the environment. Here’s our carefree and car-free compendium of summer happenings that you can reach by bus, rail, biking or walking.
  2. Bases covered: Go Metro to Dodger Stadium by connecting with the Stadium Express at two convenient locations – Union Station or South Bay. Your Dodgers ticket is good for the fare! To plan the route that’s best for you, use Metro’s Trip Planner. Big Blue’s on a hot streak and you wouldn’t want to miss the action or that quintessential summer culinary delight known as the Dodger dog.
  1. Transit is so hot right now: Take the Santa Monica Big Blue Bus to one of the city’s favorite summer traditions, the ultra-popular free Twilight Concerts on the pier. The city is packed on concert nights so take transit to avoid traffic headaches. You can also use Santa Monica's easy public Bike Share to navigate the beach community. There are 500 bikes at over 80 stations city-wide. Weekly through August 17 from 7-10 p.m.
  1. Hammer Museum
             Hammer Museum
    A stroll through the village: Walk from campus to the Hammer Museum’s free summer program Rebel Rebel, featuring an eclectic line-up of female-fronted bands. Tour the galleries until 9 p.m., and catch live music in the courtyard. Thursdays in July starting at 7:30 p.m.
  2. Smooth operator: LACMA’s Friday Night Jazz Series features some of Southern California finest jazz musicians. Metro’s 20 and 720 lines on Wilshire and the 217, 218 and 780 on Fairfax all stop within half a block of the museum. Bicycle racks are located on Wilshire near the intersection of Spaulding, and just inside the 6th Street gate. Weekly through November starting at 6:00 p.m.
  3. Where summer plays: The Hollywood Bowl Park & Ride allows you to park in your neighborhood and ride directly to the tinseltown amphitheater to hear performances by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and other acts.
Broad Museum
           Broad Museum
  1. Get your summer on downtown:
    • Dance under the stars at the Music Center’s Dance DTLA, every other Friday through September 1 from 7-11 p.m. Go Metro and save 20% on tickets to Dance DTLA! Take the Red or Purple Line to Civic Center/Grand Park Station. You can also use the DASH system.
    • The Broad Museum’s Summer Happenings is a late-night mash up of art, music, dance and spoken word on various dates through Sept. 23 starting at 8:30 p.m. The closest Metro station is the Civic Center/Grand Park Station (Purple or Red Line) located at First and Hill Streets. The museum is just a 0.4 mile walk from the station. Santa Monica’s Big Blue Bus also offers weekday and weekend service to The Broad.
    • Beats from live music set the mood for Natural History Museum of L.A. County’s Summer Nights in the Garden. Sip a garden-infused cocktail, check out various science and nature experiences, and brighten your life with nature-inspired take-home activities in the museum’s enchanting Nature Gardens. There are Expo Line stops on both sides of NHMLA: Expo Park/USC and Expo/Vermont. Two Dash bus lines have stops directly across the street from the museum: the Dash F and the Dash Southeast.
  1. Anchors away: Go Metro to the Long Beach water taxis and use Metro Rapid 704 or Bus 2/302 to Sunset/Echo Park or Metro Bus 92 to Glendale/Santa Ynez to visit Echo Park Lake and rent pedal boats to see lotus blooms, as well as a picturesque view of the downtown skyline.
Skirball Cultural Center
    Skirball Cultural Center
  1. Out of the studios and into communities: KCRW’s Summer Nights series of outdoor shows features live band performances and DJ sets, and spans from Chinatown to right here in Westwood. Various dates, locations and times through September 23. For the Chinatown event, the local Metro stop is the Chinatown Gold Line Station (at Spring & College). Union Station is only a short walk away. Several bus lines serve the area as well, including DASH.
  1. Peak performances: Sunset Concerts at the Skirball Cultural Center showcase eclectic music, singing and dancing in a stunning, one-of-a-kind hillside setting. Arrive early to dine, shop and view the exhibitions. Take the Metro Rapid 734 or Metro Local 234. Concerts held on various dates from 5:30 - 10 p.m.
  1. Cinema under the stars: Share the ride with your fellow film aficionados to the various outdoor movie screenings around the city hosted by Eat|See|Hear, Cinespia, Street Food Cinema and others. For a complete listing, click here.

Ready for something even cooler? Not only do we already offer discounted quarterly transit passes, just in time for all these seasonal activities, we’ve launched a new transit benefit program that provides free transit passes for commuters who haven’t tried transit before! Hop aboard before the summer fun ends!