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Los Angeles is dense city. And though it doesn't have the highest mass transit participation in the country, it certainly stands alone in the south west (and the south for that matter).
CTA (chicago) has 1.65 million daily ridership in Jun 2010 according to wikipedia. MTA (LA) has 1.4 million daily ridership in Aug 2010 according to wiki again. This doesnt seem like a big difference. And this is prior to LA's doubling of its rail system that it is now working on.
I think its just a misnomer that transit doesn't work in LA, or that we need think tanks to ponder how to make it work.
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Density, the rate of car ownership, and the availability/supply of transit are certainly factors that help determine transit ridersip. The price of subsitutes is another factor. The cost of auto ownership (excluding parking) is higher in California than New York or Chicago, with longer commute times or higher gas prices. According to the Energy Information Agency (
http://www.eia.doe.gov/oil_gas/petro...home_page.html), gas is 20 cents more per gallon in LA than NYC and ten cents per gallon more than Chicago. Pricing parking, however, would have an even greater impact on encouraging transit ridership. People are far more likely to drive if they have free parking at their destination.