There's also no conceivable way that 1/4 of the population-- of four counties, no less-- "works downtown." Big cities can rely on public transportation. Because they're not big geographically. I can drive west to the Pacific Ocean and never leave the city.

My wife makes a 26 mile (each way) commute 5 days a week. She never leaves "city" on that journey. We live in the Inland Empire, which is conservatively 4.3 million for the metro area.

Many people my wife works with commute 50+ miles each way, from the High Desert, Lake Elsinore, north Orange County, etc. Two plus hours a day for commute time is fairly typical.

This is commuter-ville. Very few people here live in the same town that they work in. It's like Barstow or Bakersfield in reverse (the only reason people live in those places is because they work there.)