Although LA is known as the city of the car the whole area has got a well developed public transit system consisting of light and heavy rail, subway and buses. It's cheap too -- you'll pay a fraction of the cost of comprable journeys in England. It pays to plan in advance, though, because it can be quite confusing if you don't live there (the fare structuring is very different from the UK as well). Also, tourists seem to get pushed onto high cost transit - for example, there's a light rail station adjacent to LAX but you'd never know it from the signs at the airport, all which would much rather have you use a cab or shuttle bus.
(Sitting in a hire car in heavy traffic on a freeway rapidly loses its gloss. Think "M25 with poor quality concrete surface"!)
www.mta.net -- it links into other transit systems, also try web searches.
Purchase a daily travel pass for 3 bucks and go as far and wide as you like. Passes are available from bus drivers and ticket outlets at metrorail stations. It's by far the cheapest and best way of negotiating the city and its environs, and of experiencing the full range of LA's social and cultural diversity, beyond the bastions of white super-privilege. Plan your journeys at www.mta.net/default.asp
Send your feedback or queries to been.there@guardian.co.uk
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