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Tokyo occupies almost twice the square mileage of Los Angeles, but you would never know it from riding the trains. It takes a very short time and very little money to get anywhere thanks to the underground and surface rails.

I propose Los Angeles steal only one of those ideas - the surface rail - and implement it incrementally.

Choose a section of LA that is particularly well-traveled by commuters and install a surface rail. Provide rapid neighborhood shuttles to the stations to make it easy to get from your house to the train station; you can divert bus resources elsewhere and defer longer distance travel to the trains. Make it easy to bike or park at the station.

Start small and prove that it works, then expand. Cities larger and more complex than Los Angeles have already solved this problem for you. Ask them how to do it if you need to.