LA's made quite a bit of improvement over the past 20 years. It's not particularly great, but I'm not sure it qualifies as worse than the Bay Area anymore. Depends to some extent on where you are within each metro area and what kind of commute you have. Some LA maps (metro and commuter rail):

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Spring-2012-LACMTA-M...

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Metrolink_system_dia...

The extension of the Expo Line (light blue on the first map) out to Santa Monica, scheduled to open next year, should improve things further. The Purple Line extension even more, but that's unfortunately some years out.