# massive mass transit expansion in LA?  what?!?!

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/massive-mass-transit-expansion-in-la-what/562673>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 2, 2010, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/massive-mass-transit-expansion-in-la-what/562673 "2010-12-02T15:21:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\
**Post date:** [February 16, 2011, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/massive-mass-transit-expansion-in-la-what/562673/41 "2011-02-16T22:49:34Z")

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> [@smartacus](#):
>
> I’m wondering if two things are being conflated in this discussion – the metro area and the city proper.
> 
> When the “delay per auto commuter” is discussed, is that for the Chicago **metro area**? Because if it is, there is a pretty good reason why this figure exists, and it’s not just that commuters looovvve their cars so very, very much that they are willing to waste tons of time in gridlock.
> 
> It’s also the fact that public transit in the Chicago suburbs completely sucks and isn’t much of an option.

True, but Los Angeles is no different. Los Angeles has a Metro Area and it has suburbs. One of Cecil’s points is that people habitual seem to ignore the former and focus only on the later.

To the extent that _any_ large U.S. city has changed in the last 50 years, they are all changing in more or less the same way.

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