<p>It used to be $16 (after discount) and now it's $19 (after discount). But the driver told me they'd probably bring it back down or something. Still $19 isn't a bad deal.</p>
<p>Prime Time Shuttle is only $17 to/from LAX, so you can take them instead. And if you find yourself flying through Long Beach and don't want to pay the high shuttle fees, you can take public transit. This involves taking a Long Beach bus from the airport to the Long Beach transit mall, then the Metro Blue, Red, and Gold lines back to Caltech. I did this last year, and it is possible, though it's a rather long trip - probably not much worse than taking the Metro from LAX, though.</p>
<p>Yup, SS increased their rates to LAX. But I should actually be going to Burbank... for some reason, I assumed that LAX would be cheaper, but I think I'm wrong.</p>
<p>I take the Metro Gold Line and the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner every 1 to 3 weeks to go home. My feeling is that it's a little... bleh.... One time I got a pretty good workout biking the 1.7 miles to the station in 10 minutes (it's mostly uphill, and there are traffic lights), and when I came back, my seat was stolen even though it was a crappy one. Still better to have someone with a car drop you off there.</p>
<p>But I'm just complaining. As for the people who complained earlier about people getting hit or arrested or whatever... I've taken the Metro tens of times and I never had a problem (besides the bike seat thing... I guess the honor code doesn't extend as far as Route 210). It's punctual and cheap ($1.25). Making the trip so often is slightly annoying, but I'm still glad it exists. Ironically, I've never gotten myself to go to Chinatown, which seems to be quite the place to go via the Metro. I should do that soon.</p>
<p>Actually, on the note of public transportation, I find it decently reasonable. A bunch of us took one line, the new Rapid 780, from Holliston and Colorado to Vermont/Hollywood (near the Children's Hospital of LA) for a few weeks. Definitely the pricing is unbeatable and the service was reasonable (the morning commute was actually really fast since the streets were pretty much empty). I've been considering using the Metro to get to LAX, but I don't want to walk to the Gold Line. I wonder if there's some better way, possibly some Metro bus to any of the rail strops or else using ARTS to get to a rail stop.</p>