Could you provide a source which backs LA's metro area being denser than NYC's?
I've yet to see any sort of metric (certainly not the US Census) that supports that claim.
I've yet to see any sort of metric (certainly not the US Census) that supports that claim.
With that low density style of development, your not going to be able to justify a rail line that can move 20k people an hour, as there aren't enough people who can get to a station to feed it.
I blame LA's zoning that keeps it as an urban slum. Dezone the city and you'd see areas around existing mass transit densify over the next decade.
Plus we are sat on the SoCal coast, not exactly middle of no-where...
Hell, there was a murder last week not a block from where I walked daily when I was there a few weeks ago. Had a window get smashed there too a few months back. IMO, Seattle is safer (just gotta keep the crack heads from breaking my windows in Chinatown :P).
This table is directly extracted from census data: http://www2.census.gov/geo/docs/reference/ua/ua_list_all.txt
If LA County is a metro area, I think Long Island is in the comparable NYC metro area.