Tolls simply aren't the answer. At best they end up being a regressive tax. $10/day means nothing to someone living in Malibu. It can be a huge deal to someone

Tolls simply aren't the answer. At best they end up being a regressive tax. $10/day means nothing to someone living in Malibu. It can be a huge deal to someone who comes into Culver City to clean a house. But the real problem with tolls is that there really is no alternative to driving and it's going to be irresponsible and ineffective to pretend like there is. Other posters have mentioned the concentration of businesses downtown as a problem but there is some spread. And commercial districts tend to cluster for a reason. Supporting infrastructure, proximity to other businesses and so on. What LA needs--and any other sprawling city for that matter--is for high density, affordable living close to employment centers such that car ownership may eventually become optional. This requires changes in zoning (which current landowners will fight tooth and nail) and probably an adjustment to the property tax system to pay for new public transit infrastructure such that the property tax is a function of the land area you occupy inversely proportional to your distance from downtown (and maybe several other important points). Basically you need to tax people who own large lots close to the city center. This effectively means the rich and again they'll fight it tooth and nail. Everybody wants to live on a half acre lot (or bigger). They want it to be affordable and close to work. Well that doesn't work in a city of X million people. Additionally outer areas may need to be treated like commuter towns are in NYC, meaning rail transport from there to, say, downtown where there's essentially just one stop in the "town". Too many stops and it just stops working at anything over, say, 20 miles or so.