Try "Urban Transportation Systems and Technology"-Vukan Vuchic- for the observed and theoretical engineering and economic trade offs in modal efficiency, in various settings. Land use, population density, destination patterns, service frequency, reliability, costs, and a myriad of other factors are included in this work which can be used to analyze various modal choice and transit investment decisions.

The decline of the transit systems was a case of public neglect, subsidized competition, and dispersing travel patterns made possible by the subsidized public roads network and the private auto. In Los Angeles, people seemed to vastly preder rail to bus even when the system was in decline. In almost every case replacement of rail by busses meant an immeditate 50% decline in ridership on most Los Angeles routes.

The key lines on many routes operated on more reliable rights of way, like the Blue Line to Long Beach, or Huntington Drive to Pasadena, Sierra Madre, Monrovia, which offered more reliable frequent, and comfortable service. The busses operated on already congested arterials in that period before the freeways were widespread. The loss of the connection to Huntington Drive, when the State Department of Transportation actually condemned the PE connection for the construction of the Santa Ana and San Bernardino Freeways, caused a major loss of ridership to the PE system as a whole, due to lost rail connectivity to other lines. Within ten years the remainder of a once vital PE system and most of LARY's street cars were all gone.

The public in Los Angeles had at least 4 plans from 1948 to 1976 to vote to support rail transit, including an early innovative 1948 plan to grade separate parts, restructure connections, and redesign the PE into a true LRT system. Each plan went down in flames at the polls. Yes, it is true many "highway" special interests opposed these plans. And, there is some evidence of collusion to "conspire" to eliminate rail, but primarily to save these companies money, with an aging infrastructure that promised no returns to investors.

The traffic just got worse, and finally the citizens in LA began to support restoration of at least some of the rail systems like LA-LB, with the passage of Propostion A in 1980. Now the public seems to want a real transit system, of fully integrated, affordable, reliable, and frequent trains and buses, but that takes a while, and it isn't cheap.