BBC reporter tries out the subway

David Willis' story was about Los Angeles commuters switching to the tube, if we can call it that, because of the high price of gas.

This week I did something which - in nearly 10 years of living in Los Angeles - I have never, ever done before.

Cue the drum roll: I travelled to work on the subway.

I did it because the figures suggest it is the trend. And (hem hem) being the trend-setter that I am, that is the only excuse I need.

You see - like most people here - I would rather stick pins in my eyeballs than hop on a bus or a train.

That is not because I am a snob, but because America's second largest city is a sprawl. Fifty-two suburbs in search of a city, so the old saying goes.

And the prospect of sitting in grid-locked traffic on one of the labyrinths of freeways, only to pay the equivalent of a small dowry for the right to park, may sound miserable, but given the distances involved, it is still invariably quicker than public transport.

Mind the gap.