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Thread: USH and the Metro station at Lankershim Blvd.

  1. #1

    USH and the Metro station at Lankershim Blvd.

    Here is a travel tip which some readers might well take advantage of.

    This essay is my travel experience using the Universal Studios Hollywood free shuttle tram, from the bottom of the hill at Lankershim Boulevard up to the top of the hill where the entrance of USH is located.

    ***
    I went to Universal Studios Hollywood today (Sunday July 31, 2016).
    (Hot! Bad day for walking at noon!)

    For experimental purposes, instead of parking at USH (in their handicap section), I was curious about the path between the Los Angeles Metro station at Lankershim Boulevard (bottom of the hill) and the free shuttle tram USH provides from the bottom of the hill to the top, where USH is.

    So, I deliberately parked in the Metro station parking lot at Lankershim, so that I could walk the path which I had heard existed but could not picture in my mind's eye.

    Easy drive: 101 freeway to the Lankershim exit, and go right (north).

    The block where the Metro station is located is easy to find.
    On a map, look for Campo de Cahuenga. There is a museum complex in that campus area.
    The street to the right goes up the hill and is named "Universal Studios Drive", and the street to the left goes upward likewise (to parts unknown?) and is called "Campo de Cahuenga".

    Beware: Do not drive too far on that left turn to Campo de Cahuenga, else you will go onto a freeway, or somewhere else. You must turn right into the parking lot before then, if you want the Metro station (or want the museum complex).

    For an early Sunday morning (7:45 a.m.) I had my pick of parking spaces.
    I found the blue handicap slots, fine.

    As I walked from my car to the Metro entrance (the proper entrance for taking the Metro subway train would have been an escalator or elevator downward to the subway), I saw the sign which pointed to the Universal Studios, which I took to mean "Walk this way".

    Indeed, there is an overpass just for pedestrians. -- I did not expect this. I had expected an ordinary crosswalk.
    In theory, I suppose a person could take the surface-street crosswalk. But I would not recommend it.

    To use the overpass, you must take the escalator or elevator up one flight.
    The overpass hooks around to the south-east corner (map equivalent = lower right of the block) of the intersection, namely, where the tram stop is located.

    The reason I did not expect this overpass is because this overpass is NOT VISIBLE on Google maps.
    Google maps does not show any superstructure crossing over Lankershim and Universal Studios Drive.
    I assume that the city or county built this pedestrian overpass after the year which Google Earth had photographed this intersection.
    I assume that the overpass had something to do with the new Harry Potter attraction.
    Perhaps the "old" method was was indeed to cross the street the old-fashioned way, to reach the tram stop.

    Thus, I walked over the intersection. The path was a hook to the right, so that I ended up catty-corner to where I started. That is, I did *not* need to to East and then go South. It was all one curving path.

    Then I took the elevator (or escalator, your choice) down to the street level.
    I saw the tram stop's hooded bench area.
    The tram stop was like 30 yards from the elevator.

    Lucky me, the shuttle tram was already there, about to leave, so I caught it, without needing to sit and wait on a bench.
    I load, with my walker.
    I sit.
    Up we go.

    The tram passes through a special lane at the kiosk where drivers pay for parking, so we never stop.
    The tram finally stops behind the Citywalk area, and you are unloaded accordingly.
    You are now 50-100 yards from the true gated entrance of USH, where security personnel inspect your backpacks and check your pockets for metal.
    Then you walk the Red Carpet (!) to the real ticket gate, where ticket-takers scan your Annual Pass (like mine!).

    Lessons learned:
    I saved $18 in parking fees by parking for free at the Metro lot.
    There is still a lot of walking to do. I didn't save on shoe leather, by using the free Metro lot. But for some parking lots ("Frankenstein" or "E.T." or "Jurassic"), yes, the walk would be less using the free shuttle tram than a long walk from the traditional parking structures.

    True story:
    Last month, I parked in the parking structure named "E.T." in the handicap lane, but far away from the exit of the structure, and, wow!, that walk was incredibly long and hard! -- I had to walk through half of CityWalk to get to the true USH entrance.
    From "Hard Rock Cafe" to the entrance of USH is like 300 yards!
    Just getting from my car to the exit of the structure into CityWalk took me like 10 minutes of walking. Then add 15-20 minutes more walking to get to the USH entrance.
    I'll never do that again!

    "It is, it is, a glorious thing, to be a Pirate King."
    -- Gilbert & Sullivan, "Pirates of Penzance, or, The Slave of Duty"

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  3. #2
    Quote Originally Posted by potzbie View Post
    Here is a travel tip which some readers might well take advantage of.

    This essay is my travel experience using the Universal Studios Hollywood free shuttle tram, from the bottom of the hill at Lankershim Boulevard up to the top of the hill where the entrance of USH is located.
    Thanks for all that info. Keep in mind, the Metro parking is intended to be used by Metro customers only. Maybe next time you could see if there is a Metro stop closer to your house and take it for part of your journey? The red line goes into Downtown L.A. where it connects with most of the other Metro lines, and a little bit further into North Hollywood, where it connects to the Orange busway into the Valley.

    It definitely sounds like the Metro stop is a convenient alternative to driving all the way to Universal!

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