LA Koreatown Public Transit Guide: DASH vs Metro vs Rapid Buses
Every guide to Los Angeles opens the same way: rent a car or you're stuck. That's reasonable advice if you're crossing the county daily. It stops being true the moment you're based in Koreatown and the places you want are Downtown, USC, or the beach. Then the car becomes the expensive part — twenty minutes hunting a space, fifteen dollars to leave it there, and a parking app you'll never use again.
I've stayed in Koreatown on and off for years and I ride buses by daylight. Not after dark — that's my own rule, not advice I'd hand anyone. What took me longest to work out wasn't the routes. It was that LA doesn't run one bus system. It runs three, operated by two different agencies, with fares that don't talk to each other. This post is part of my Koreatown series, and it covers all three: what they are, what they cost, and how to actually get on one.
What's in this guide
Three systems, two agencies
The buses don't match each other, and that confuses people on day one. Here's the shape of it.
| System | Look for | Route names | What it's for |
|---|---|---|---|
| DASH | Small white shuttle | Letters: A, B, D, E, F | Short loops inside Downtown, Little Tokyo, Chinatown, USC |
| Metro local | Orange bus | Numbers: 20, 207, 720… | County-wide network, stops every couple of blocks |
| Metro Rapid | Red bus | 700-series numbers | Same streets, far fewer stops, longer distances |
DASH belongs to the city's transportation department, LADOT. The orange and red buses belong to Metro, which is a county agency. Same sidewalk, different organizations, and that split explains most of what follows in this guide.
One correction worth making, because older guides get it wrong. There were once dozens of red Rapid lines. Most were folded back into local service, and only three corridors still run Rapid: Wilshire, Vermont, and Van Nuys/Sepulveda. The Wilshire Rapid matters in Koreatown specifically — it cuts straight through the neighborhood and keeps going west to Santa Monica. If the beach is your plan, that's your bus. Don't build a day around a red line on Olympic or Crenshaw. They haven't existed for years.
What each one costs in 2026
Two fare systems share the same streets, and they don't share a wallet. This is the whole picture on one screen.
| System | Operator | Cash | TAP card | Transfers & cap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Metro local (orange) |
LA Metro | $1.75 | $1.75 | 2 hours free with TAP. Counts toward the cap. |
| Metro Rapid (red) |
LA Metro | $1.75 | $1.75 | Same as local. No premium for fewer stops. |
| DASH (letters) |
LADOT | $0.50 | $0.35 | No free transfer. Sits outside the Metro cap. |
| Metro rail (B, D lines) |
LA Metro | $1.75 | $1.75 | Same fare and transfers as the buses. |
The fare cap is the part worth understanding. Load value onto a TAP card and Metro stops charging you once you hit $5 in a day or $18 across a rolling seven days. You don't buy a pass, you don't track anything, and you can't overpay by riding too much. It simply stops.
DASH is the exception that catches out visitors who've done their reading. It belongs to the city, not to Metro, so those thirty-five-cent rides keep charging after Metro has gone quiet for the day. DASH also ran free for almost five years and brought fares back on February 1, 2025 — which is why a lot of what you'll find online still says it's free. It isn't.
One more thing about cash. Neither farebox gives change, and cash on Metro buys you a single ride rather than two hours. If you hand over a dollar for a fifty-cent DASH fare, you've paid a dollar.
Get a TAP card before anything else
This is the single thing I'd tell anyone to do on their first morning. The card is a reusable plastic card with a small one-time fee, and you load cash value onto it. Everything in that table above — the transfers, the fare cap, the cheaper DASH fare — only works if you have one.
You can buy and load a TAP card at vending machines in any Metro rail station, which in Koreatown means Wilshire/Vermont, Wilshire/Normandie, or Wilshire/Western. The machines take cards and cash. There's also a mobile version you can add to your phone, which is what I'd use now if I were starting over.
Load more than you think you need. Twenty dollars covers a lot of days under the fare cap, and topping up mid-trip at a machine is a small annoyance you can skip.
Boarding, paying, and getting off
All three work the same way at the door, which is the good news.
Boarding. You get on at the front. There's a reader next to the driver — hold your card flat against it until it beeps and the light goes green. If you're paying cash, feed bills and coins into the farebox beside it. I keep a few singles and a handful of quarters in my pocket, for the reason explained above.
Twice a DASH driver has waved me on without taking anything. I don't know what rule that falls under and I wouldn't plan on it.
On board. Nobody checks your card again, and nobody announces your stop in a way you can rely on. Watch the cross streets. The front display helps on newer buses; on older ones it doesn't.
Getting off. Pull the cord along the window or press the yellow strip about a block before your stop. When the "Stop Requested" sign lights up, move toward the rear door. Metro buses let you out the back, DASH usually the front. Don't wait until the bus has stopped to start moving.
Finding a stop. Easier than it looks. DASH shares poles with Metro across most of Downtown, and the DASH logo is printed right on the sign. In a maps app, set the mode to transit and look for a letter instead of a number — that's how you spot a DASH option in the results.
DASH F: the one route worth planning around
If you ride a single DASH line, make it F. It runs down Figueroa Street, and the corridor it covers is a cross-section of the city that no walk would give you in the same time.
You start in the Financial District among glass towers, pass the arena and convention center block, roll through South Park with its new apartment buildings and coffee shops, reach Exposition Park with its museums and the Coliseum, and end on the USC campus. Under an hour, end to end.
USC is worth getting off for even with no reason to be there. Red brick, old trees, the kind of American campus that films use as shorthand for "university." There's a Trader Joe's on campus, which makes it a sensible place to grab water and something to eat before heading back.
Weekday service runs roughly every ten minutes through the middle of the day, with longer gaps early and late. Weekends are less frequent and start later. Published hours have moved more than once since the pandemic, so check LADOT's site for the current timetable rather than trusting a number in a blog post, including this one.
The other DASH letters: A, B, D, E
F is the one I use. The rest fill in the corners of Downtown.
DASH A — Little Tokyo and the Arts District
Connects Little Tokyo and the Arts District to the eastern side of Downtown. If you've been walking Figueroa and want a complete change of texture, cross east and pick this up.
DASH B — Chinatown and the Financial District
Runs north from the Financial District up to Chinatown. Good for an afternoon when you've finished with Downtown and need somewhere else to eat.
DASH D — Union Station and City Hall
Links Union Station and the civic buildings into the rest of Downtown. Worth slotting in when you're transferring to a train or another Metro line.
DASH E — MacArthur Park and the Fashion District
Joins MacArthur Park in the west to the Fashion District in the south. The Fashion District is cheap clothing and wholesale blocks — fun if that's your thing, and dead quiet on Sundays.
One thing to ignore: the colors on DASH route maps. They separate lines on paper and have nothing to do with the color of the bus or any official branding.
Getting from Koreatown to Downtown
Everything above assumes you've already reached Downtown. From Koreatown the fastest way is rail. The B and D Lines both run under Wilshire with stations at Vermont, Normandie, and Western, and they put you at 7th Street/Metro Center, which is the middle of everything. Ten to fifteen minutes door to door.
I'll admit I've almost never done it that way. I take buses east along Wilshire, Olympic, or Pico instead. It's slower and I have no rational defense. Street level is just more legible to me — I can see where I am, and I can get off early when something looks worth a stop. Take the train. It's better. I just don't.
Either way your TAP card covers it, and if you ride rail then transfer to a DASH within Downtown, remember the DASH fare sits outside the Metro cap.
One stretch to pay attention to
Downtown has an area east of Main Street, roughly between 3rd and 7th, where a large unhoused population lives on the sidewalks. It's commonly called Skid Row. Some Downtown routing passes near its edges.
I won't dramatize it. People live there and almost none of them want anything from you. But it's a part of Downtown where I stay on main streets, don't wander, and don't get off a bus without a reason. Locals navigate it the same way. If you're planning a route on a map, it helps to know the area exists so it doesn't catch you off guard.
Questions people ask
How much is a bus in Los Angeles?
Metro local and Rapid are both $1.75, with two hours of free transfers if you pay with a TAP card. DASH is fifty cents cash or thirty-five with TAP. Metro caps you at $5 a day and $18 a week; DASH is outside that cap.
Is DASH free in Los Angeles?
Not anymore. It was free from 2020 until February 1, 2025. Plenty of search results are still out of date on this.
Do I need a TAP card to ride the bus in LA?
You can pay cash, but you'll lose free transfers and the fare cap, and you'll need exact coins. Get the card on your first morning at any rail station vending machine.
What's the difference between the orange and red Metro buses?
Orange is local service, stopping every couple of blocks. Red is Rapid, with stops much farther apart and the same fare. Only Wilshire, Vermont, and Van Nuys/Sepulveda still run Rapid.
Is it safe to take the bus in LA as a visitor?
Daytime riding in Koreatown and Downtown is ordinary. These buses carry people going to work and school. I don't ride after dark, and I keep my phone in my pocket rather than my hand — which is the same advice that applies in any large city.
A few dollars of fare and one coffee will move you across more of Downtown than a rental car would, and you'll see the parts that only exist at sidewalk level. That's the whole argument.
Next in this series: the Metro subway under Koreatown — the B and D Lines, what the 2026 extension changed, and which station to get off at.
