[Porsche-O-Phile]

I've said this a million times but there's simply too much money involved to expect any meaningful change anytime soon. The people and institutions that make a killing off of a vehicle-dependent populace (automakers, car dealerships, oil/fuel distributors, insurance companies, banks, etc.) are so in bed with the politicians that there simply can't be any meaningful change. Not to mention the infrastructure costs.

SoCal (and particularly L.A.) had their chance to implement visionary mass-transit in the 1960s. That window of opportunity has long since closed. How are you going to fund such a project today when prices for the real estate alone are absurd? Float bonds? Good luck with that in a state looking at certain bankruptcy in the next few years due to overspending and overextension on past bond obligations (and pensions).

Nope, L.A. is screwed. They made their bed in the 1960s when they decided to stake their future on cars only - and now they can live with it.

The Metro light rail lines (blue, gold, red, green) are nice, but only if you're going to (or from) the ghettos. Having the blue line terminate here in Long Beach is a blessing and a curse. It can get you to downtown L.A. if you feel some compelling reason to want to ever go there, but the downside is it's an easy, cheap conduit for every manner of ghetto trash from North L.B., Compton and South Central to come down here and start trouble. Go walk around the Pike some night. It can get downright scary.