Before covid, I took the bus to work and was fortunate enough that I could generally get a ride home instead of taking the bus. I worked in the area around Disneyland and my employer offered a subsidized buss pass through the OCTA Perk Pass program where my employer paid the first $49 of rides at $1.25/ride and I would pay up to $20/month at the same rate after that if I used more rides. I didn't use it enough to ever get charged for rides, which was nice.
Even working in the area around Disney and the Anaheim Convention Center, which you would think would have relatively decent bus service, the schedule was a bit of a pain. I had to leave for work about 90 minutes before my start time so that I would be sure to make it on time. On the way to work on Route 50 (starting work at ~130pm) it would take about 45 minutes to go from home to work and be there just a few minutes early. It's a roughly 15 minute drive, basically straight down Katella. I got off work right after the 930pm bus would be stopping near my workplace but the bus stop was about half a block away so I would have to walk and stand at the bus stop for almost an hour waiting for the next bus home.
I used my bus pass to get to school a few times when my mom's car was in the body shop and I couldn't share the car with her on school days and it worked fine but was definitely inconvenient getting to and from CSUF and home, even though it was only two buses. Once, on my way home from an evening class, the 57 bus was diverted due to a car accident on State College and I had to hustle to catch an alternate bus on Nutwood since it was the last bus of the night for the alternate route and State College was going to be blocked for an unknown amount of time.
I also had several experiences where there were issues with disturbed individuals on the bus that were pretty concerning. On one occasion it was bad enough that the Sheriffs at ARTIC had to remove two homeless gentlemen who were having an altercation over something. I was never really afraid of riding on the bus, but I'm a ~6'2" guy who people generally don't mess with. If I was a young woman or smaller guy I might have felt differently.