A few months ago I went to the Walt Disney Concert Hall with my family to see the LA Phil play Mahler's First Symphony. Beforehand we had dinner at a Mexican restaurant down the street and, as we walked down Grand Avenue, I was amazed at the sheer density of the skyscrapers, cars and people that plopped down all in one place. 

While I remember the Mahler symphony so clearly, I am less inclined to recall the journey to get there. My family took freeway there and hit traffic right around Dodger Stadium. The rest of the way there we sat in bumper-to-bumper, 10-mile-per-hour traffic, leaving me to wonder from the backseat, "When did this get so bad?"

Traffic congestion in Los Angeles has only worsened as of recently, with the number of cars on the road increasing to higher levels than before the pandemic. Combine this with the fact that LA county's population will grow by 2.3 million in the next four decades, and you have a pretty sizable problem.

There are many different ways of getting people to unbuckle from their cars, but it seems like the more we talk about it, the more we converge onto one solution: public transit. 

At first glance this seems like the obvious choice for the packed Los Angeles area. Subway lines, train routes and city buses can carry dozens of people at once and can help employees who work in busy areas to get to work faster. Let's just build a few train tracks, drill a few tunnels, and tell drivers to take the Metro.

Unfortunately, it's not that easy. 

Connecting all of Los Angeles by train and subway would be a tall task, considering the county contains 88 cities in its 4,000 square miles. Linking masses of people through subways would not be as simple as in a city like New York, where everything is much closer together. 

Not to mention the lack of incentive for people to ride. An increase in crime and homelessness discourages commuters from using subways or buses. Additionally, a lack of shelters around bus stops and the emptiness of subway stations doesn't have people itching to tap that Metro card. 

So how can we get our act together? Our public transit system needs to make some serious changes if city officials want more people to hop on. 

Luckily, some Chinese teachings can help us approach this problem. 

Han Feizi founded Legalism in the 200s BCE, determined to put an end to the Warring States Period in China. While many know Legalism for its cynical view on the world and harsh punishments, Han Feizi had some attitudes toward government that could apply today. "The best penalties are those that are severe and inescapable, so that the people will fear them," he wrote. "The best laws are those that are uniform and inflexible, so that the people can understand them."

Similarly, if city officials want crime to decrease around public transit, they must be strict about it by implementing and enforcing laws that ensure safety. This could include increasing officer presence in trains and stations, or it might mean increasing fines against loitering. 

In regard to the creation of laws, Han Feizi believed that "he who wants to accomplish a great achievement but hesitates to apply his full strength, cannot hope for the accomplishment of the achievement."

And we cannot hope for any change without action. To advocate for more transportation, legislators need to put their full effort toward constructing new rail lines, subways and bus shelters. There are some projects in place, such as a line soon to be built connecting Los Angeles' rail system to LAX. In addition, President Biden's new infrastructure bill will hopefully give a boost to other train projects. 

Thinking about the opportunities ahead for our public transit system, I can only hope that the future will lead to a more efficient and prosperous City of Angels.