Taxi? Bus? Try a van!

In Rio they have these passenger vans with about 15 seats (think Ford Econolines) in them that are driving around all over the place where people need to go. They work like busses. When you see one pass by, you hail it, they stop, you tell them where you need to go, and if it happens to be the right one, you get in. There may or may not be people in them already when you get on. So they're like public shared ride vans.

So they're really cool. They only cost 80 cents just like busses, but they're smaller than busses and go to where you need to go. You only share with a handful of people most times, and so they're almost like a taxi too. They're the best of both worlds.

You get off when the van gets to your destination. I think LA could use some of this kind of unofficial metro carpooling.