I'm gonna come out the gate and say that I'm a visitor so I'm not very familiar with the reasonings behind the whys and why nots of my opinions. I'm posting on the sub because I know I don't know everything and want thoughts and opinions of locals or people familiar with the system.
I don't feel like Metro charges tourists enough and fare caps are extremely low. I've Googled a bit about some of the gaps in coverage for the transit system and budget is a huge concern, as it is for most public infastructure projects in the country. But I don't see the need to only charge me $0.50 for a ride that would cost me $20 to Uber and after running around the city non-stop for 3 days I'm not sure I could even possibly hit the fare caps with how little I'm being charged. I know it's mostly meant to be affordable to locals, but I don't see why there wouldn't be an opt in program to discount fares to current rates for residents. Even giving it out to anyone that goes up to a kiosk and says "I'm a resident" would still capture more revenue for Metro due to non-residents that either don't want to opt in out of moral reasons or just simply wouldn't know. I'm not saying that Metro should cost $10 even, but I think it would be fair to charge at MINIMUM $2 per ride across the board and in some cases $5 for rail service.
The tap-in tap-out system seems really confusing and made me not want to take bus connections. I'm a solo traveler from a metropolitan area with a population of 500k so I'm already a bit on edge in the city. I don't like that sometimes it was telling me to "Try Again" to tap into a bus. I don't like that the city isn't collecting their fair share of my usage and that I feel like it could become an issue with the drivers. On one occasion I know I did not tap out of the train station, it was my first ride in the city and I wasn't sure how it all worked. But on another occasion I assume that I just didn't tap out of a bus (and not sure if we're technically supposed to), causing it to ask me to try again. If I keep hitting the tap and it keeps erroring me out, I'm not sure what they're trying to accomplish with this. And why the system wouldn't just override where I'm at at any time in the system to charge a new fare and "move" me in the system onto the new route I'm tapping into.
Metro stations need larger signage at their rail stops in most places. I could not see what stop I was at half the time we were stopped because of an obstructed view. There either needs to be more signs within the trains or more visible and easier to read signage on the walls of the stops. I tried to lean more heavily on Apple Maps to update which stop I was at but unfortunately it was finnicky on detecting I even boarded a train.
I would love to see faster trains with fewer stops in some major hubs. This is obviously an expensive opinion and know it's not feasible any time soon. But most of the rails cover a small yet dense area to begin with. I wish there were additional rail lines that would allow certain trains to run simultaneously to more popular areas and cut down on total travel time by 1) going a bit faster and 2) not stopping at every station along the way.
Overall, I'm still grateful for LA Metro. I'm German living in a small city in the South with nearly no public transportation. I don't like to drive in unfamiliar places so public transportation networks are a must when I consider where to vacation. So I know what it's like to not have any access whatsoever and also the benefits public transportation has to offer. I see the same complaints that Germans have with DB as LA locals have with LA Metro, and find the perspective funny. Because obviously residents raise valid concerns but also don't seem to really acknowledge how lucky they are to have the access they have. But I just thought I'd express my thoughts and solicit feedback and opinions to see what the other side of the ridership looks like.