Stan Paul, undergraduate advisor for the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, has been a UCLA staffer since 2001. That’s when he began his long-running vanpool odyssey between Riverside and the campus. Paul has contributed photos to the New York Times as well as the Los Angeles Times and various UCLA publications and websites. Earlier in his career, he wrote news and feature stories for the Riverside Press-Enterprise, which ran many of his photos. Most recently, he presented a collection of photos taken in Los Angeles to students in the urban planning class “Looking at LA.”
See an album of Stan Paul's photos on the UCLA Newsroom Facebook page
When I started on the UCLA Vanpool from Riverside/Moreno Valley more than a decade ago, my co-driver and fellow mega-commuter, Mark, predicted that if I stayed on the van long enough I would “see everything” on this journey.
The veteran “road scholar/warrior” was right. Since starting my commute in 2001, I’ve seen plenty of interesting things on, above and on either side of the long, gray strip that meanders through some of America’s most congested freeways.
As a longtime shutterbug—and captive passenger — I started taking photos of sights encountered during the commute, most recently switching to my iPhone camera. (None of these photos were taken while driving). My route includes UCLA, Westwood, the I-10 and downtown area (when taking a short cut to get around traffic), Highway 60 and finally Riverside/Moreno Valley. The 160-mile-plus commute can take anywhere from 4 to 4 ½ hours each day. Over a decade, this amounts to roughly a round-trip to the moon, retiring a few 11-passenger vans along the way.
While we leave the Inland Empire in darkness and return in darkness for part of the year, the remaining months afford views ranging from amazing sunsets reflected off buildings in downtown L.A. to sightings of unique vehicles, from classic and customized cars to the Wienermobile.
Various characters and street scenes captured as the van leaves the campus and Westwood have added to my collection. Along the way we travel from L.A.’s mix of old and new buildings; over the cement-lined LA River; past the crush of the 605, the 57 and the 15 freeways; and over the mostly dry Santa Ana River bed where Jack Kerouac, author of “On the Road,” spent a night camping.
Finally, after the last squeeze through Riverside past the 91 freeway and into the land of L.A.’s satellite bedroom communities and beyond, we reach our daily destination, hopping into our own cars for a mini-commute to our front doors. Sometimes, if the traffic is with us, this last bit of the trip rewards us with a spectacular sunset — each one different — somewhere way beyond UCLA.
Tomorrow, we’ll do it all over again.
More photos on Facebook.
Hear an interview with the commuting photographer on KPCC that aired July 10.
