The Los Angeles Metro is a hot mess of madness. Accept this now and you may pass through it with the zen like state necessary to deal with government agencies such as the IRS, the DMV, and any other three letter acronym you can come up with.
It won’t be easy but with this guide you shall conquer the trial of the Escape from LAX and become master of your own destiny, able to lift fully loaded airplanes made of paper with a single hand or leap over 10 story high lego buildings in a single bound!
The first question you must ask yourself:
Where am I going?
If you are going near to any location where the FlyAway Shuttle travels it is probably worth the $8 to $10 to take that shuttle and have a friend pick you up from that location (or use a Ride Share service to connect you to home). The shuttles are comfortable and relatively quick. However, you are a hardened traveler, your posterior requires no plush padding, so onward to LA Metro.
LA is a Land of Many Little Cities
New York City is New York City. It’s simple. Los Angeles is a city and a county and within the county there are dozens of cities, not neighborhoods but legitimate self-governed cities that don’t always play nicely together. This includes running their own transit systems.