Believe me, they've tried. They've been flushing gas tax money down the toilet of public transit for years, to no avail. Governor Davis, at the dedication ceremony of a new section of freeway a few years ago, declared that it was the last one that would be built in California. Yet no matter what they do: diamond lanes, trolleys, subways, buses, yada yada yada, people just insist on driving their cars. It's time those idiots in government face reality and start spending the money on building more roads and relieving congestion.
True story: I was commuting from downtown San Jose to northern Santa Clara, a distance of about ten miles. I was taking one, major bus up one line to get to work, no transfers or anything. Well, the buses proved to be so unreliable that I started leaving earlier and earlier to be sure I got to work on time. I was finally getting out to the bus stop TWO HOURS early, hoping to get one that wouldn't break down or run out of gas(!) on the way to my job. This to travel ten miles, a distance I could drive (at the time) in about fifteen minutes.
The net effect was to not only drive me into owning a car, but to ensure my perpetual hostility to all forms of mass transit. Mass transit is socialized transit. Socialized ANYTHING results in poor, unreliable service, with no-one to be held accountable. To this day you couldn't pay me to ride a bus, I'd rather walk.
Probably not, but then again...
If they were REALLY concerned about the environment they would invest more heavily in mass transit and provide a viable alternative to owning a vehicle.
California has the toughest emission standards in the U.S., which makes it more viable to own a less polluting vehicle. While SoCal has a long way to go on mass transit, BART is one of the best systems in the country. It's not ideal, but it's not bad.
Yes, they need to be very resourceful. Supporting all those illegals can be pretty costly.