"...[C]ompared with the majority of U.S. cities, Los Angeles is not a transit wasteland. The region is second in the nation in transit patronage... on a market share basis (passenger transit miles traveled as a share of all miles traveled), Los Angeles’s ridership rate is relatively high: 11th among the 50 largest urban areas... Los Angeles has the sixth-most-extensive heavy and light rail network in the nation, and several new extensions are in the works... Los Angeles has done reasonably well at providing good bus service. Its pioneering Metro Rapid lines use techniques like limited stops, low floors, traffic signal priority, and high bus frequencies to significantly cut travel times. Ridership on the Rapid lines has been strong, and the program is being copied by other cities. The new bus rapid transit line (the Orange Line) is also a trend-setter, providing virtually all the amenities of a rail line at a fraction of the cost... Our transit share is quite small: a bit under 2 percent... the car is king in Houston, Atlanta, Cleveland... The San Francisco Bay area is second in the country with a transit market share of 5 percent... The median urban area among the largest 50 — Milwaukee — has a transit share of 0.7 percent, 40 percent of Los Angeles’s. The Kansas City region is lowest at a startling 0.2 percent... New York, the mecca of American transit, has a market share of around 10 percent... So judged against other American cities, public transportation in Los Angeles has not, with apologies, “missed the bus." "

Freakonomoics Blog | Los Angeles Transportation Facts and Fiction: Transit |By ERIC A. MORRIS | March 3, 2009

A friend of ours (an architect whose long thriving solo-practice was hit hard by the current economy) took a job in downtown LA. While staying with us on the Westside (broadly defined) he found a Beverly Boulevard bus to and from work, an experience he didn't relish for the start-stop quality of the ride, and the physical confinement amidst a crush of passengers. He followed this with a stay in the San Fernando Valley where he had to drive a short distance to catch the Metrolink, for a smoother ride and more agreeable ambiance. He's finally settled into what he says is the most pleasant routine of all, a walk from his new home in Pasadena to a station on the Gold Line which whisks him in ease and comfort straight down to the office.