LA is working on greatly expanding rail. Denser development will slowly occur near the new stations to make walking to the station an option for some. However

LA is working on greatly expanding rail. Denser development will slowly occur near the new stations to make walking to the station an option for some. However, LA will never have the density of NYC and so walking to a station will never become an option for most in LA. But Uber/Lyft (especially Uberpool and Lyft Line) are potential solutions to this. I don't think they have the critical mass yet to be a true solution. But if they ever reach that point, it may become viable someday to commute to/from work by using only a mix of Uber/Lyft and rail. It's already possible today, but only for high income jobs. For this to have a big effect on LA transportation, it must become an option for middle class jobs. It's possible that the critical mass of Uber/Lyft can only be achieved with self driving cars. Some think that self driving cars will mean the end of public transportation. But I think they will instead complement each other well. The roads are already at capacity. Self driving cars will help improve the efficiency, but traffic is like a gas, it simply fills to the new available space. It's why adding a new lane to a freeway usually doesn't help much. The main reason is that a single occupant in a vehicle that can seat 4 or more is fundamentally a very inefficient way to travel. Making the car self driving doesn't change this fact. There is potential in the future for rail and cars in LA to work together to truly improve transportation. Uber/Lyft and self driving cars could solve the "last mile" issue of getting to/from stations. Rail can provide the high efficiency and density that freeways can never provide. I hope this is the future of LA transportation because I don't think cars alone or rail alone will be enough to truly solve the traffic issue.